Who Can Explain It?

Yep.  That's the hen I was convinced was dying last night.  What the heck do I know?

Maybe she just wanted to sleep out in the fresh air for a night.  Too bad it stormed for hours.  She was safe in the hutch behind her in this picture, though... and the food fortex was in there, too.

Here's her exact opposite in the little henyard, the "dying" hen is white with black speckles, and this one is black with white.

We're making progress on the big new section of bed.  We still have to add about ten bags of Max-Mix to it, next weekend.  That's a Nanho Purple buddleia in the distance (and a fine large one)...and Anabelle Hyndrangea, in the middle, and a Clethra close up... Sweetspire.  Oh, and Lilly dug up part of my sedum, so I moved some down to this bed, closest to the camera.  Keith watered them in and gave them a shot of Jump Shot to get them going and stimulate their roots.  We'll also be spreading mulch once the rest of the MaxMix is down.

I'm getting older, and am learning to rely on shrubs to fill in and be a back drop.  I also learned last year not to plant them too close to the back fence... so these are spaced out in the middle of the bed. 

There are nine hens pictured in this very muddy henyard this evening.  The tenth is actually there, she is the blue speck behind the middle of the big hens.  There are two Naughty Girls (mille fleurs)... three Welsummers, a Gold Penciled Rock, Bitty, who is the blue headed part silkie in the background, and the two big hens bought a month ago, a black and a white.  I got FOUR Eggs, two big and two little from this henhouse today, and have only been getting two or three little ones.  The Welsummers have just about quit laying, and they are a year old on March 12, so fourteen months old.  I can't tell if I have gotten one from Rockette lately, frankly.. but I have gotten a big white one several times, so I know one of the two old girls is laying.  To say I am disappointed with the Welsummers is an understatement, I have always wanted to have some, and these girls are just not doing it for me.  That's Brutus, the Welsummer rooster, to the right, with Rocky, the Rock rooster in the background.  These two boys are BIG.. and therein may lie the problem.  You can see Rockette is still missing most of the feathers on her back.  Remember, there are two little hens inside, and the little rooster with no name.  Still... production MUST pick up. 

(Oh yes, I'm so strict.  I could literally pick up the phone and call my friend at the goat dairy right now, and tomorrow there would be a truck at the door to pick up every chicken I wanted to get rid of.  I'm carrying a lot of pensioners at this point). 

I've had bad news about my baby sister today, and some decisions will be made in the next few days by her hurting husband as to what is going to happen next for her.  Please say a prayer tonight for Kathleen, and that the decisions made will be the best for her in her fight against abdominal cancer.