The hens are complaining that they haven't been featured in the blog enough lately, so I am indulging them.
Here are two of the Harco Black girls, enjoying the sunshine and relatively mild February temperatures:
Here are two of the Harco Black girls, enjoying the sunshine and relatively mild February temperatures:
Sophie and, uh... I think this is Buttercup... studiously ignoring each other. The dogs are excellent with the chickens. They just want to follow them around, eating their poop! And then Sophie tries to kiss me, ugh!
Er...I think that's Yolkie and Buttercup, resting in the barn.
Tristan on the hunt for fresh hen turds. Yuck! He's so good with the chickens, though. A few weeks ago, a hen Gordon was holding jumped from his arms and landed on Tristan's head (promptly jumping off again) and Tristan barely reacted.
The ever-beautiful Charlotte, my cuddliest hen.
Chicken consortium.
I think this is Henrietta. Is she not gorgeous?
The fluffy butt of Chicky, aka Runtley (she was the runt chicken and is at the bottom of the pecking order.)
Chickenly gorgeousness.
Eleven spotless eggs from eleven happy chickens. They are giving us ten to eleven eggs a day lately, which is pretty astounding. While the Sex-Links breed is meant to lay all year around, as I understand it, they are only supposed to lay one egg every two to three days!
Checking out today's haul!We would like to get six more chickens this spring, but I need to do more research on integrating hens into an existing flock. Gordon now has 17 co-workers on his egg list!
I'll say it again and again Knatolie... the four fresh eggs you sent home with us were just the tastiest, most delicious ones, ever! Gordini's co-workers are très chanceux! Alas, as Gordo well knows, it's a federal offence even to *think* about shipping an Ontario egg south of the St. Lawrence. Sigh. Will wait for next visit!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful family. Very productive. Everytime I see your eggs, I feel like eating an omelet!!!
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed your Sri Lanka's interesting posts. Many thanks for sharing.:-)
Truly beautiful hens! They are wonderful egg producers! I love those brown eggs. Your lucky chickens are well guarded by your golden doggies.
ReplyDeleteIch wollt', ich wäre ein Huhn,
ReplyDeleteda hätt' ich nichts zu tun;
ich legte jeden Tag ein Ei,
und sonntags hätt' ich frei.
:)
Knattie,
ReplyDeleteYou can't possibly be serious. You actually named a hen "Buttercup?" What Disney World are you flying around in? When I was a kid in Africa we had some guinea pigs that we "liberated" from the nearest, uh, "pet" market (read: grocery) . . . we called one of them, a big longhair, "Adolf" because he was a Nazi among his peers. NOT "Porky," NOT "Goldy." "Adolf."
His siblings, if I remember correctly, were named Heinrich and Hermann, because of their squealingly obstreporous behavior.
(Buttercup! Heh!)
One day we came home from school to discover that my mother had given them all away to the cook. And what do you think cooks do best?
Buttercup. BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA haaaaah. That's what I think I'm going to start calling my chef's knife.
Maybe if you leave little trails of dog food around the yard, the dogs might (hopefully) ignore the turds... Love the new look btw!
ReplyDeleteAw Brian, I wish I could smuggle eggs across the border to you!!
ReplyDeleteClaudia, I am hankering for an omelette myself. And I'm glad you liked the SL site.
Callie, the dogs do a good job of chasing off coyotes. And I love brown eggs too.
Chef Nick, calm yourself, you axis of evil, you. We let my friend's four children name eight of hens. Some of the names reflect the age of the person doing the naming: Duck, Goose, Chicky, Buttercup...
Me, I came up with Anastasia and Henrietta!
Angel, I'd have to leave raw meat scattered around the yard to distract them from the chicken poop! :) I have resigned myself to having the dogs dewormed by the vet once or twice a year.
ReplyDeleteSean, a poem in German and not only that, I actually remember enough German that I could translate it! Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteHow's this, for my non-German readers:
I wish I were a chicken,
because then I'd have nothing to do.
I'd lay an egg every day,
and Sundays, I'd have off.
Or something like that. What do you think?
The girls are absolutely beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked the photo of Runtley with its fluffy butt. Reminds me of our cat Burney who has fluffy pantaloons...and has rust accents!
Yolkie?
Yes, yes, my friend's 13-year-old came up with "Yolkie"!! :)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant translation, Knatolee.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry I did not offer at least an translation attempt.
'My' first two lines would have read:
I wish I were a hen,
nothing to do I'd have then.
But then I had to leave a hole in the ballad. ... The Germans are - so to speak - a bit rhymoholic, you know? :)
I love all your chickens. They really are beautiful. I'll be looking for plenty of pointers from you when I retire and get chickens of my own. I can't believe you're in Ontario and don't have any snow on the ground! We can't get rid of the snow here.
ReplyDeleteGenny, we're in a snow drought. You stole our winter! Actually, our land is covered in snow but it must be warm around the barn, because there are several spots of grass (and the chickens love it!)
ReplyDeleteI would still like to do an exclusively-chicken blog. I'll see what I can do.
Sean J, I loved your verse in either language! Dankeschön!