New Arrivals

So we've added a few additions to our little farm...twelve new ladies moved in last Saturday.  Our Guinea fowl flock keeps increasing, but, sadly, our chickens have been on the decline.  Many of them are getting old and only lay an egg every so often, if any at all.  Every spring we hope that the clutch of eggs that our one broody mama sits on will produce chicks, but, alas, nothing ever comes of her weeks of sitting.  Poor old Chanticleer the Rooster, I don't think he realizes that he's a rooster. Since being unable to produce our own chicks, when we heard that the owner of our local feed store had twelve one-year-old hens for sale, we bought them all. They seem to be settling in quite nicely, however, a few of them, having never been outside, stayed in the barn all day, not daring to come out of their little chicken door.  I've noticed, though,  that they are now becoming curious and are starting to wander outside into the pen, pecking at the bugs they find crawling on the ground and dusting themselves in the warm sun.  Since chicken eggs have been such a commodity, we have been quite excited about collecting eggs daily.  We have already gathered more eggs than we would have in a month's time.  Although we have been thankful for the Guinea hen eggs that have been abundant this summer, they are quite small, and it's just so satisifying to crack open a large, farm-fresh, chicken egg for breakfast.  I'm happy we welcomed these twelve new ladies onto the farm.  (Maybe we should now consider finding a new rooster.)

Thanks to my daughter for photographing the flock.