Last Saturday I was just minding my own business, transplanting seedlings and what not, when I got a phone call. It was a local number, and although I didn’t recognize it, I went ahead and answered it.
A young lady said, “This is your neighbor from across the road, and I’ve been out doing a photography session.”
I’m thinking, “Well, that’s nice, but what’s that got to do with me?”
So remember me talking about clearing rats out of the feedroom back in February? They made a stinking mess (literally), and chewed up a years worth of peacock feathers to making nesting material, and ate who knows how much of the peafowl’s food. I finally realized they were even getting into the bag of large-sized dog bone treats, and munching their way through those as well.
Anyway, we cleaned out the mess in the feed room, and everything was put in metal cans. That included putting any peafowl food that didn’t get eaten during the day into a metal can at night (sorry guys, no more midnight snacks).
In honor of Chicken Lovers Day, here are some photos of farm chickens!
Golden Sebright Chicken
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Hen teaching chick to peck at corn.
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Hen & Chicks
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Buff Orpington Hen
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Sheltering Wings
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Chickens in Flowerbed
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Rooster Bookends
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Polish Silver Laced Rooster and Buff Orpington Hen
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Rooster, Goldenrod & Daisies
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chickens roosting on pallet fence after a rain storm
We love our chickens! Happy Chicken Lovers Day!
Last fall I had a picture of a chicken hen and her chicks in a post called “A Chick Chick Here“. The hen was looking back to see if her chicks were following along behind. . .
Are you coming?
Well, this picture caught the eye of a very talented artist named Donna Clements. She asked if she could use the picture as a basis for a drawing. I thought that was a neat idea, so of course I said yes.
Last week she sent me a picture of the results.
I asked her if I could use the picture in my blog and to tell me a little more about the picture. Here’s what she said:
“The drawing is approximately 9″ x 9” and was done using waxed based colored pencils. It won 1st Prize (non-professional division) in the Indiana County (PA) Art Association Spring Show. While that was quite an honor for me, I was even more excited about the judge’s comments. First of all, he really liked the composition of the picture — he loved how the hen was looking back at her chicks. All that credit goes to you, Tish, for the great photo! On a personal level, he noted that I should definitely be competing at the professional level and if I had do so with “Ruby’s Brood,” he would have awarded me at that higher level! So, now, I’m competing at the professional level!
I’m happy to say that Ruby now has a new home. A dear friend of mine asked if she could purchase it because it reminded her of growing up on her family’s farm. Ruby now hangs the wall of her large, country kitchen!”
Isn’t that awesome?!? It was kind of Donna to give credit to my photo, but I believe the real credit goes to her for an awesome job of translating it into a piece of art!
I also asked her if she could send me a bigger picture so people could get a good look at her fantastic artwork, so here we go!
Ruby's Brood
I am in awe of people who can draw so well. I’m afraid even my little stickmen drawings look rather demented!
Congratulations on your award Donna! It’s well-deserved!
Conundrum – defined as
Besides the obvious conundrum we’ve had of wondering why the cria was born too early, there are other puzzles on the farm.
For instance, what happened to this rooster’s tail feathers?
Where's the tail feathers???
Or how about this? Why does this guinea hen have a chicken chick?
Mama guinea with her chicken chick
Or we might pause to wonder why there was a foil star balloon blowing across the main pasture . . .
Why do we have a balloon in the pasture?
And perhaps we could wonder where it came from in the first place.
Then there’s the question of why something so pretty as a butterfly should enjoy something so disgusting as manure tea. . .
Taking a break at the Manure Tea Cafe
We could also wonder what all these peafowl and guineas are looking at.
Do you see THAT???
Except that’s not really a conundrum, because I know what they were looking at and squawking about. . .
Soaring and Seeking
There’s a hawk that’s been hanging around the last couple of days, and I fear it might enjoy a chick or keet for a meal. If it’d eat the mice, I’d be happy, but I don’t think it will be particular about eating other birds.
Maybe it’s a conundrum after all. How do you enjoy having beautiful predators like hawks around without having to worry they’re going to snack on your baby birds?
An intricate and difficult problem indeed!