Decemberr 7, 2015

We got a new chicken from the Gulleys because the brown hen went missing last week. We didn’t realize that she wasn’t missing, she had gone broody, Maria found her hidden in a corner of the hay  barn this afternoon, sitting on 21 eggs. She had been there for several days, at least. When hens go broody, they sit on their eggs for 21 days, getting up once a day to eat and drink.

The barn isn’t a good place for the chickens to be in at night, so we removed her this evening and put her back in the roost. We now have four chickens. In a way, this makes sense. We found no feathers or any sign of an attack, nor was there a body. If a fox or coyote had come out and snatched her, there should have been feathers around, she never went further than the back yard and sometimes, the front yard. We never found a feather, now we know why and we also know why we weren’t getting many eggs

So we have four chickens after all. The White Hen, the Brown Hen, The Gray Hen and the Red Hen. Our house-sitter tried to name the Red Hen Ginger, but we don’t name our chickens any more. Except by color. I changed this policy when one of my favorite chicken was snatched by a hawk 10 feet in front of me, disappearing into the sky in a trail of feathers. Chickens are not all that smart, and every thing in the world eats them.

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Tip: Maria is selling 74 skeins of yarn tomorrow morning on her website, they are $24 each, plus shipping.