A’s chicken update

Another blog update from guest editor, “A,” our 10-year old niece who just spent a week with us for “camp.”  

Olive and Star get ready to put their two boys to bed – together.

At Trueheart the baby chickens have grown so much! Surprisingly, the two hens Olive and Star are still raising their babies – who appear to both be boys – together!  I am troubled on what to name them as they have showed no reason for their name. But I will keep looking.

So called “Bunny” appears to be a boy which means I have some more naming work that I am looking forward to doing. The four teenagrs are quite big now.

Little Sister

Sadness comes in a wave with all this commotion. Last night when my uncle and I went to put the chickens away, we saw that Little Sister was missing. After looking all over and not finding her we decided she would come back in the morning and went to bed. But she hasn’t come back and it is early afternoon. Our doubts that she will come back are getting bigger by the minute. But we are still on the look out with a hopeful gaze in our eyes.

Little Sister (l) and Hazel (r).

Hazel, the matriarch of the flock, is still her normal funny self. The  other day I was feeding the chickens some blueberries. She didn’t want any but she still chased any chicken away who wanted some away, even the roosters!  Nothing scares Hazel! Though she is small, her personality is bigger than a whale.

Hazel.

Editor update:  Since A wrote this post, we found Little Sister’s nest outside.  She was broody and had begun sitting on a nest not too far from our backdoor.  We had looked under every bush and searched for her for hours, but to no avail.  When these hens want to hide, they are ridiculously difficult to find, and we never found Little Sister, despite how close she was to us.  We are convinced we were within inches of her as we searched, but she sat tight, never moved, and we never found her.  We believe Little Sister survived her first night out, but that a  fox who has been running around the property every night lately found her and her nest the second night.  We are just heart-broken.  

Of course, we could keep our chickens locked up and we’d never lose them.  This is the conundrum – they LOVE free ranging and while they sit quietly when we keep them locked up, they just revel in roaming our property.  

Little Sister was one of our VERY favorite chickens.  She was hatched on March 1, 2008 by one of our original hens, Blanche, and both of had the distinguishing characteristic of missing both middle toe nails.  

Blanche and her brood of babies that included Little Sister and Whitey (the white chicken on the right that we still have).

Both of them were a bit squatty, and they were both wonderful, devoted mommies and were very tame and fun. 

Notice LIttle Sister’s middle toes – no nails!

Blanche, our Queen, also missing toenails on her middle toes.

Goodbye Little Sister. 

2 Comments

2 responses to “A’s chicken update”

  1. avatar Kelli says:

    So sorry to hear about LIttle Sister, L&P. Our condolences…:( K&J

  2. avatar Trueheart Vineyard says:

    Thanks K & J.