Little Hens

Our little hens have kept us laughing this week. 

This one, Rosewitha, some of you may recall... was one of the three mamas that hatched out the last clutch, born in September in the little henhouse.  Once those babies were able to go outside and fend for themselves, Rosewitha went back to the big henhouse where she had lived all her life.

Why is she in the rafters? 

Because Tuesday night, after I hadn't seen her for a couple of days... I had Keith climb a ladder to look above this:

This is the last piece of ceiling hanging in the big henhouse on the feed room side.  In the previous picture, Rosewitha is about 3 feet from it in the rafters.

Tuesday night, Keith got on a short ladder, and looked above the tile.  There was Rosewitha, on five or six big chicken eggs.  She was NOT pleased that Keith found her.  He lifted the eggs down to me... and gently gave me Rosewitha.  I put her in the little henhouse so that she could help incubate the (now 17) eggs under the little hens in there. 

The next day, I couldn't see Rosewitha anywhere.  I kind of freaked out, as I lost her twin, Dovey, a few weeks ago.

Finally, I asked Keith to climb the ladder again (he is tall enough to see into the ceiling, and there was Rosewitha AGAIN. 

She had gone over this:

It's the door that separates the little henyard from the big, we don't allow the two flocks to mingle any more.

Obviously, it didn't keep Rosewitha in. 

Because that evening, I found her where you see her in the first picture, in the rafters. 

Tonight, Keith did chores.... we don't know WHERE she is, but there were two big beautiful brown eggs up on the ceiling tile. 

They keep us laughing!

Here are two more... this little pullet has not come into lay yet, she was in the September hatch:

Her daddy, Ratchett, is the frizzle cochin right behind her.  Then again, she is shaped more like one of the half-Japs we have.

Here, we think, is her mama:

This little cochin hen, Lady, is two, and carries the frizzle gene.

And here, last night, are part of the little flock:

I try to give them treats every other night - and as you can see, they LOVED the dog food leftovers and old sour cream they got last night!

I'm linking this to Farm Friend Friday!