Our latest acquisition, a little red hen and her six chicks. Apparently they have never seen a pear before.
A few months back we moved Imogen’s mum’s chickens to her brother’s house, where we hoped they would settle in with his other chickens. We wanted to replace them with some less “feral” chickens, and to that end went to a large poultry sale on Saturday. It was a zoo, and we left chicken-less. Plan B was asking a friend if he wanted to sell any of his birds. He offered us the above “package deal”.
The hen is an ISA Brown (ISA stands for Institut de Sélection Animale), which are a hybred between a Rhode Island White and a Rhode Island Red, bred specifically for maximum egg production (about 300 eggs per year). Since she has black tail feathers, I suspect a little something else slipped in her linage somewhere. The father of the chicks was a White Leghorn, and given the chicks’ current coloring I think they’ll eventually range in color from buff to speckled red.
Since we only keep ducks and chickens for their eggs, we’re hoping that at least half the chicks are hens. Any boys will be passed along to non-vegetarian family members.
Any thoughts on what we should name her?
Henny Penny? I remember Mom reading this to me when I was little.
Hmmm. Maybe just “Penny”. She is a bit copper colored . . .
Of course, in a few weeks we’ll need six more names.
Kiev, CordonBleu, Hot Wings, Nuggets, Dumplings, and General Tso.
Oooooooooo. You’re cruel.
Although . . . I could see us calling a little cockerel “Kung Pao”.
That’s actually a great name – funny and not entirely tasteless. 🙂
I might have to pop in our copy of Chicken Run for a bit of inspiration.
The face of a chicken who is not to be messed with.
The only reason she has chicks this late in the season is because she broke out of our friend’s chicken yard to lay and hatch her clutch. Then, a few weeks ago, she returned triumphantly with her chicks in tow.
That’s one determined mother hen. What a funny story.
Broody mamas can be very determined. We ended up with twenty-some-odd ducklings two years ago when their mamas hid two nests long enough for them to hatch out.
Even though we no longer have a drake and all our ducks are laying sterile eggs we still have nests moved constantly. Although, this late in the season, they’ve given up laying.
What a wonderful bird she is. The little one behind her has already mastered the look.
Are their rules that chicken names have to rhyme, or be from Kiddie lit, or inspire bad puns?
All I can offer is Gwendolyn (Gwendolyn the Miracle Hen) – another kid’s story
And also Doodle (Doodle Soup) from John Ciardi’s book. Also a sort of chicken soup locally famous where my grandmother was born.
No rules whatsoever.
We called mum’s chickens “Helga” and “Olga”, just because the names seemed to fit.
Gwendolyn is a fine name for a chicken.
Examples of our somewhat eclectic choices in names would be our ducks, who are named “Boogie Shoes” (because of her spectacularly marked black and orange feet), “Snert” (after the white duck in Hagar the Horrible), “Baby Snert” (who looks just like her mother), and “Minnie Molly” (who looks a lot like her mother Molly, who we’ve since sold on).
Somewhere in a Tibetan refugee community living in Northern India is a weaver who spent four months of his/her life making this beautiful dog bed.
I love that picture. Perfect comfort, perfect feet.
Another view — excellent.
It’s the pointed toes that takes these pictures from everyday too-adorable-for-words into my-heart-is-melting territory.
Puppy Pyr paws, with their extra toes, are extra adorable.
Love it! My GP Sundancer loves to lay on her back like that. It is so smile producing to see such a big dog as she is in such a cute “puppy-like” pose.My girl is 11 years old now but loving being in charge of the wilderness here in Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming. We moved here last September and she has befriended everyone and every critter anywhere around. I think she loves it even more than I do here.
Nice to say Hi to Keres. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Hugs
Shirl
Hey Shirl, good to see you here.
Sounds like you’ve moved to Sundancer’s version of heaven. Luna would be thrilled if we had snow.
Lily had her first day at puppy pre-school on Sunday, and now we’re doing daily “sit”, “stand” and “down” exercises. She’s got “sit” down-pat. The other two, not so much. She’s still at the too-enthusiastic-to-pay-attention stage.
I remember the “puppy” training days. I will have to say although I have had several different breeds of dogs over the years (all large breeds), I have never had one smarter or more quick to learn than my Great Pyrenees, Sundancer.
She does, however, have a bit of a stubborn streak from time to time (not unlike me) and will just stand there looking directly at me as if to say she really doesn’t want to do what I am asking but will under protest.
On the other hand, I have never had a more fun loving, people loving, animal loving well tempered dog in my life. She is just totally cool, but is pretty sure she is in charge of everyone and everything in her world.
Everyone here loves her and she them. All the doggies think she is swell and the horses really like her.
Good to hear from you Keres. Thanks for replying.
Hugs
Shirl
The difference in their fur is interesting – Lily still looks like a little sheep, Luna is definitely dog. 🙂
Lily still has her puppy fluff, and you’re right she’s wooly.
Poor Luna, otoh, has lost her entire undercoat and is very fur-less at the moment. She looks really different from her usual fluffy self.
Here’s what Ms. Fluff Bucket usually looks like in Winter.
Looks like Lily is getting spectacles.
Umm, Heny Lamarr. 😉
Be-dum Ching!
groaaaaaaan.
oh goody.
Here’s Truman gutting the brand new “baby” I gave him last Sunday:
he wanted someone to play tug of war with someone:
Keep away and tug-o-war are the favorites here.
I gave Lily a new toy yesterday and I haven’t seen it since.
And surely you didn’t disappoint him, Auntie.
Sniff does his zen ponder the universe shtick.
click for larger
Giddy does her noble dog pose (fooled ya).
click for larger
Bebo does what a puppy does the day after she discovers what turkey buzzards do.
click for larger
Great photos, all of them.
Mmmmm. Dead squirrel breath.
My mother used to try and feed our Great Dane breath mints. Imagine if you will, a 140lbs dog wolfing down his food and then walking away from a bowl with a glistening breath mint still sitting in the bottom.
Fortunately Bebo is young and her breath recover fast. But it’s been such a shock to find out that little mutt is actually a notorious squerial killer.
While we are not trying to contend for “the world’s most spoiled pet”, I should point out that it’s not every rabbit who has his own garden, or at least a large portion of ours dedicated to his pleasure.
Hector’s daily selection of greens include: dandilion flowers and leaves, plantain, several varieties of grasses, scarlet runner beans and leaves, corn salad, sorrel, cavalo nero (black kale), parsley flowers, and any other herbs in season.
In addition to fresh picked greens he gets carrots and grass hay.
Hey, you’re that cute, you deserve the best. 🙂
Nice skink shot and so polite of it to holds still for you.
The shadows and patterns (the drawers and magazine holders) on the nap picture are fantastic.