It's the Circle of Life

Well, today Yikes died. She was about five years old and had been looking pretty droopy lately, so I guess it wasn't a surprise. Of course, even the fact that I was expecting this to happen didn't make it any less sad.

I guess this makes Sleeve-Eater the last of the original Plain Old Chickens flock. Fortunately she still seems healthy. Hopefully she'll stick around for another year at least.

~~~

But I have good news too. A few days ago, Jazz hatched six fluffy little ducklings. They follow her about, peeping whenever she accidentally leaves them behind, and often hop into the waterer to take a bath. Jazz and Charlie  are very protective of their babies and seem to love chasing off the chickens when they come too close.
Unfortunately, I don't currently have any pictures to show you. I'm sorry.

~~~

P.S. My web browser doesn't do exclamation points at the moment. Feel free to imagine them where ever you think they're needed.

Lots of pictures!

I know, I know, that really wasn't a brilliant title. But it's pretty accurate, given the nature of this post! In a moment I'm going to bombard you with my poultry photography, and you're going to love every moment of it (and if you don't love it, I'll unleash Turtle the Insane Easter Egger upon you).

Yikes!

Yikes is still very much alive. I often think that she'll outlive every single bird in our flock, including the ducks. She's such a tough old lady!

Charlie and Jazz

The ducks are all grown up now, of course. They lay about three eggs a day, so the refrigerator is always full. 

Kooshie

Kooshie still loves to fly up onto my arm. I'd be happier about this habit if I wasn't constantly feeling like she does it to spite Turtle.

Turtle

And Turtle is in love with humans in general and me in particular. She loves to be cuddled. I can never decide whether I should be charmed or terrified by her adoration!

Patience

Patience is Lord Firestar's son. He was hatched last August. Lord Firestar likes to chase him around, but never actually hurts him as far as I can tell.

Champion

Champion and Sparkle Sparkle are Patience's sisters. I'd go into more detail about their relationship with him, but it's kind of creepy. What can I say? They're chickens.

Droplet and Flower

These guys are virtually identical. I can't tell them apart most of the time. Please don't hate me.

Lady Sandstorm

Lady Sandstorm is perfect. And charming. And saner than any of her children. I love her.

Chipmunk

Chipmunk didn't inherit her mother's sanity. She's currently broody again, as is Yellow.

Lord Firestar

He might be even more perfect than Lady Sandstorm.

I hope at least some of these pictures made your day a bit better! I know they improved mine.

"QUACK!!!"

WARNING:  Absolutely adorable pictures ahead.  Do not read further if you have trouble restraining your desire to buy small, fuzzy animals.

Still with me?

Okay, you asked for it.

Left to right:  Izzy, Jazz, Droplet.

(Also left to right) Izzy, Jazz, Droplet, Prince Charlie, Flower.

Prince Charlie.

Yep, the Plain Old flock now includes ducks!  One Welsh Harlequin drake (Prince Charlie), two Buff hens (Flower and Droplet), and two Blue Swedish hens (Jazz and Izzy).  Five absolutely adorable two-day-old ducklings from Metzer Farms.

Can't tell them apart?  Well I can't really either.  They look kind of alike in these photos, except for Charlie maybe.  To help you with figuring out who's who, here's a quick guide:

Charlie (Named after a character in the little-known Ocean Girl TV series.  Look it up if you haven't heard of it):  Has stripes on his face.  He'll probably get a curly feather on his tail when he's older, too.
Izzy (Named by my dear sister) and Jazz (Short for Jasmine, I think):  Jazz has lighter colored spots on each side of her head; Izzy doesn't. 
Flower (She tried to eat a flower, thus her rather predictable name) and Droplet (She had a water droplet on her head.  Imaginative name, no?):  Flower is darker colored and fluffy; Droplet is pale and slender looking.

And no, they don't quack yet. 

Goodbye, Egglantine, We Love You

Poor Egglantine has been looking ill for months.  Today she looked so sick that we finally decided to put her out of her misery.  She was stumbling around with her eyes shut most of the time, and her face was purplish.

Egglantine

September 18, 2009~May 16, 2011

We love you, Puffball. 

 

Thank you to my father for taking care of that nasty job. 

60 followers!

This blog had such humble beginnings, so how did I ever get 60 followers?  It certainly wasn't my loyalty to my little territory in my little corner of Blogland...

I love you all!  You're the most wonderful bunch of followers around!

~~~

Other news: Cutie-Pie's wattle looks disgusting.  We're smearing triple antibiotic stuff on it every day, but it hasn't started looking any better yet.  Hopefully the antibiotics are helping!

Big Girls and Tiny Fairies*

We (me, and the original creator and owners of this blog) moved the Big Girls onto our property yesterday.  They handled the move amazingly well (thanks to all their previous moving experience, no doubt), and had a great time eating grass and feed.  I spent a few hours sitting with them and feeling extremely happy.
  Today the Big Girls had another adventure.  The Seramas (who live next to the Big Girls so that everyone can be protected by electric fence) somehow managed to sneak into the Big Girls' area!  Sleeve-Eater wanted to attack them, but I was able to restrain her and she calmed down quickly and nobody else really noticed the trespassers.  So now the Seramas and the Big Girls are allowed to wander around the same yard.  So much for biosecurity, but at least no blood was shed.

*Big Girls: The original flock.  Tiny Fairies: A newly thought up name for the Seramas.  Yeah, I know I'm weird.

To all spammers

Yes, I know that whatever you're selling is great.  Yes, I'm sure your anti-spam software is the best anti-spam software around.  Yes, I understand that taking the time to read the post you're commenting on gives you less time to make money. 
  However, I have something to tell you all.  If it looks like a spam comment, I delete it.  I don't care if it has links or not; If you sound like a spammer to me, your comment is going to be sent to the happy spam filled blog in the sky.  Now go bother some other hapless blogger. 

Go away!  Now!

(Sorry, real commenters, I just needed to get that out of my system.  Even if the spammers never read it, writing that really made me feel better)