WordPress tell me I should be writing posts about chickens, this is based on how many search enquiries land on my blog looking for chickens, especially Bluebelle. I’d be happy if I had time to write posts about anything.
Any road up; I’m here now, with a chicken or two.
The topic is Daisybelle rather than Bluebelle, but then life is full of compromises.
This is the boss of the chicken run, she can be a nasty piece of work to her underlings, chasing them around the run in a morning. The name Daisy belle comes from the ruff of white feathers around the neck. These girls are getting on a bit, more than I had realised as this next photo was taken in November 2007,
these girls are ancient in chicken years!
Egg production had dwindled to almost nothing through the darkest days of winter, but now, surprisingly, give their age, things are on the up.
Despite having three nice nest boxes in the hen house they prefer to lay in an old set of drawers in the barn. There can be a bit of a tussle for position (you can guess who wins).
After laying and the regulation clucking and squawking (I’ve never understood the Darwinian reasoning behind chickens need to tell the world where they have just laid their eggs) the preferred exit route from the barn is through the ventilation slits in the barn wall,
this often takes visitors by surprise.
March 16, 2012 at 11:54 pm
Oh wow! What a great shot! How long did you have to wait there? Or are the hens quite regular layers once they get started? She looks more like a turkey as she emerges from the barn. Imagine one of those landing on your head!
March 17, 2012 at 1:26 am
I never realized that chickens get “gray” as they age. Learn something new….
March 17, 2012 at 2:48 am
I expect you would have astonishing success writing about Spud and the chickens negotiating territory. At sunrise.
(A Saturday Evening Post editor was said to have remarked that a cover featuring “Abraham Lincoln’s doctor’s baby’s dog” would be bound to become the all-time record generator of magazine sales.)
Excellent chicken photos.
March 17, 2012 at 2:55 am
I like how all animals have personalities and quirks if we just get to know them well enough to discern them. Your hens make me chuckle
March 17, 2012 at 5:56 pm
…or cluckle?
March 17, 2012 at 9:37 am
Watching chickens is most entertaining and they make a good photographic/blogging subject as well! xx
March 17, 2012 at 11:09 am
I really enjoyed your chicken as an angel. No wonder the visitors are stunned. I always thought the noise after the egg laying was the fowl equivalent of, “Blimey, thank goodness that’s out.”
March 17, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Stealth chickents, that’s what someone needs to breed. Ones that can lay an egg and not advertise the fact to all and sundry (including predators).
March 18, 2012 at 4:44 am
Priceless photo of the chicken taking flight!
March 18, 2012 at 2:21 pm
One of my dad’s favorite expressions is, “You beat a hen a’pecking.” Thanks for sharing pix of your “Belles.”
March 19, 2012 at 8:06 am
I have a fondness for chickens. Because they are so familiar, we tend to under-value them, I think, so It’s nice to see them featured once in a while.