Chicken Preening
After a rainstorm a few days ago, I saw this one chicken sitting on the pallet fence, preening her feathers.
She’s one of the younger hens, hatched just this year.
While she’s preening, I’m busy screaming. Okay, not literally. But I’m still dealing with the fallout from someone stealing my credit card info, and dealing with someone hacking into my websites.
This is not my week. Is the calendar wrong and this is Friday the 13th or something?
What A Sweet Face (And Other Goat Jokes)
See this sweet face?
Yeah, uh-huh. That’s what she WANTS you to think. But if you believe that, the jokes on you! This little girl defines the “spice” part of the “girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice” saying.
She’s not called Cinnamon just because of her color.
No, this is one mischievous little goat. If there’s a way to get into trouble, she’ll find it. She climbs all over The Farmer’s tractor, flirts with Samson (our male llama), chases chickens when the mood hits her, chews the bark off tree trunks, begs for treats, and otherwise thinks of little goat jokes she can play on us.
Like this Sedum Matrona:
ALL of the stalks used to have big flower bud heads like the one in the background. But while we were in Canada, some little goat, not to name names (cough, cough… Cinnamon… cough, cough), got into the back yard and munched up on those tasty flower buds.
So don’t let that sweet face fool you. She’s a corker!
Chicken Genetics
We started out with three breeds of chickens here:
- Buff Orpington
- Polish Silver Laced
- Sicilian Buttercup
Our chickens free range during the day, so we don’t dictate what rooster breeds what hen. They decide that all for themselves. 
That means that sometimes the genetics produce some interesting results.
Take a rooster that was a cross of Buff Orpington hens. . .
And a Polish Silver Laced Rooster, and you get a rooster that looks close to the original, but still carries some different genes.
Now let him breed with a Sicilian Buttercup hen. . .
And you end up with this handsome fellow. . .
We’ve also ended up with a lot of all white chickens, and other variations like Peepers. . .
And as usual, I’m waiting to see how many of this year’s chicks are going to turn out to be roosters. It seems to me that there are always more roosters than hens. What’s with that? With two adult roosters, I probably have one rooster too many anyway!
But it’s a lot of fun seeing which genetics come home to roost!
Entree Of Cat On Bed Of Leaves
Sound like a menu item?
Well, we don’t serve cat in salads around here, but we often do see a cat on a bed of leaves. Spot seems to find them a nice cushy resting place.
Llama At Rest
Here’s our Lady Llama, Keira, taking a rest in the shade during the afternoon heat.
She seems fully recovered from her hard delivery and loss of her cria. And for now, she’s mostly back to her old sweet self.
Our male llama, Samson, however, is still moaning and humming every morning when we let Keira out, and he still doesn’t get to be out with her.
Patience buddy. You’ll get to be back with your sweetheart in a couple of months.