Chicken

I love my “girls”.

Back in the fall of 2012, the daughter of a friend of my father-in-law’s (phew!) gave me an entire chicken coop as well as 5 older hens. Some of the hens still lay (well, of the four that figured out how not to get eaten by hawks, that is...) on a consistent basis, but I was really only getting one or two eggs a day. My family eats eggs practically every day, so I decided it was time to add some younger hens to our little flock.

Meet the new girls!

This is Savannah. I have no idea why I named her that, it’s just the first thing that popped into my head. I was born in Peachtree City, Georgia though, so maybe my heritage was shining through in those crucial 10 seconds.

And this is Sunshine! Cozy named her, and it impressed me that she picked an appropriate name that “goes” with Savannah. Not sure how to tell them apart? Sunshine has a white butt.

Incidentally, Sunshine could actually be Savannah. I didn’t notice the white butt until after both birds were named, and then decided Ol’ White Butt should be Sunshine.

The new hens haven’t figured out where to lay their eggs yet. For about 4 days after I brought them home I thought they must have still been too stressed out to lay. But then out of the corner of my eye I spotted their “nest”! Once I removed these eggs though they stopped laying there and now I have no idea where they created their new nest. Somewhere in my yard or in the cornfields there must be about 30 eggs!

I love these girls, too! We read the cutest book the other night called The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington. It was darn funny. We laughed the whole way through it (the girls and I were laughing at the little girl’s determination to catch a certain hen, and Ty was dying over my imitation of a southern little black girl’s voice.) It’s definitely showing up at Christmas! Ever since then, Dagny has taken on a new life goal. She wants to be the Chicken-Chasing Queen of Wood County.

Minding their own business, looking for delicious ticks. (Ew.)

“Run! Here she comes!”

“Ack!” (Dagny is wearing a ballerina tutu with tennis shoes. Pick your battles, folks.)

“I git you, Shunshine!”

Look at those thighs. I’d run too if those were chasing me!

Into the coop you go! Dagny has become a pro at helping me get the new hens into the coop at night. They haven’t developed the habit of going in there themselves like the black hens do every night. (On the left side of the picture is one of the little girls that I babysit during the day. Aren’t her blond ringlets adorable?)