Dramatis Chickenae

There was much excitement here last night. 

 Our good friend Teri, a llama farmer and a blogger whom we have actually met, gave us some little chickies once....quite a long time ago.

Two of them were little white bantam cochins, which we named George and Laura. George eventually met the fate of many free roaming chickens and was eaten by who knows what.

Laura was smarter. She still walks among us.....and she will still willingly brood anything we put under her. She has hatched many poultry critters that were not of her ilk.

However, one of her first broods, also many years ago, produced Silver, her own daughter. Silver is one of those gorgeous blue and golden birds that sometimes pop out among the Americaunas or Easter Eggers. That's what the rooster side of that equation happened to be. She is not a particularly productive chicken but she sure is pretty.

Laura lives indoors now, due to the plethora of varmints we have been experiencing, and Silver has been in the little coop Mappy gave us, with the big cochins.

The other day, naughty Daisy, who is BAD with chickens, bombed the window of that little coop just as Liz raised the lid to feed the birds.

Out flew Silver. She and Laura are favorite chickens, senior citizen chickens, special chickens. Flocks have come and flocks have gone, birds have come and birds have gone, life has changed....George and Laura used to come over to the barn each morning while we were milking and entertain us with their antics out in the barnyard. Cows have gone too, but Laura and her chick are still here.

Losing Silver made us sad. Although everybody tried to catch her she proved elusive, here one minute, gone the next. She has lived free for many of her years and is good in the brush, but with all the foxes, fishers, yotes and weasels around here her days were numbered if someone couldn't grab her.

Last night....bed time...Liz came up on the porch from last time around the barn checking and door closing. In one hand a flashlight. In the other a great big grey chicken (Silver would make four of her tiny mother). She had been sleeping on top of the wall of the dog kennel.

I grabbed the camera. Just as I clicked the shutter the hen bated with a scream, the flashlight went crashing to the floor, and Alan came flying out of the living room, thinking the horrific squawking and crash were Peggy getting hurt. He was not impressed with the whole chicken in the house concept, but hey, she's smaller than a calf or a pony.

And she is now safe back in the coop with Blue, the big cochin rooster and his other ladies,

Whew, 

I was worried about her. 

Who me?