Mental Farmer

My hen Snapdragon is at least part Sumatra.  This makes her a bit wary, not as social as our other hens.  She hangs back from the flock, keeps her distance, doesn’t like being petted or fussed over like the others.  Sumatra hens tend to lay fewer eggs, one every 3 days or so.  In Snapdragon’s case, […]

Remember this guy?  He was in the coop with an egg in his gullet when we got back from our trip to the Outer Banks.  He came back; again he was coiled around the nest boxes in our coop, egg in gullet.  This time, John found him.  John carefully lifted him with those plastic, long-handled […]

I wish I had my camera in hand the other day.  Snapdragon disappeared into the brush and returned with a black snake in her beak.  The snake was about 6 or 8 inches long and thrashing.  Sweet Pea spotted it, ran up to Snap and grabbed the snake out of her beak.  Sweet Pea took […]

On Thursday morning, I noticed Snapdragon and Clara Barton in the front yard.  Their ring leader Sweet Pea was nowhere to be found.  Then I heard a ruckus in the side yard and panicked – it was Sweet Pea in distress!  My first thought was “Damn it, I am going to be late for work.” […]

This past week John and I prepared for our birds to come home to roost.  Dana and Paul (my sister and bro-in-law) gave us their small coop, since their new chicken tractor arrived this week.  John went over to pick up the coop on Thursday, and we got it all set up with an attached […]