Gosh.
Where has the time gone?
I have been living my life instead of writing about it! Shockingly rude behavior for an old school blogger such as myself. My apologies.
I hope to make up for it with a nice little story...
Right now I have four chickens. Two of the original group of four. The hens left over from the rooster purge. Then I got two more chicks and it turned out one of those is also a rooster. He will be re-homed soon. Those chicks are much younger, though they are growing fast now. The rooster is starting to act like the boss over the littlest hen. She is practically a non entity at this point. The lowest creature in the flock. It's going to be a mixed blessing when the rooster goes. She will be on her own in more ways than one. I hope the older hens let her blend in.
Anyway, it was getting time for my older hens to start laying eggs. I've been keeping my eye on them for signs.
This is the black hen, though really, she has black feathers with iridescent green and then rust ones on her neck. I finally was able to capture this effect the other morning...
She's stunning in person.
The other hen has lovely variegated feathers with some gray/lavender ones here and there.
Such complexity!
So I have been keeping an eye out for any 'egg laying' tendencies and the other day I caught the black hen fussing around in one of the nests and finally settling down in it. But.... no eggs.
This went on for several days.
I keep saying... the black hen, the other hen, the little chicks.
No one has a name.
And as you know... this is practically blasphemous in my world. But I was waiting. Just waiting. I didn't want to impose anything on them. I wanted to see if it would come organically.
This hen has the most beautiful all black eyes. Very mysterious and deep. Right after I took this picture, I sat quietly looking into her eyes and sort of asked her 'what is your name I wonder?' and lightening fast it came.... Esmerelda.....
Just like that.
And I thought... well there you have it. That's how it works.
So a day or so later, my friend C. came to visit me for a week to attend our 50th class reunion. Yeah, we're old as dirt now.
We went out to visit the chickens and there was the black hen sitting in the nest again. C. asked me if she had a name yet and I told her the above story.
She looked at me and gasped in disbelief. Speechless for a moment.
Now my dear and faithful, long-suffering readers. I am going to ask you to trust me as maybe never before, I promise you this is what happened.
C. said, 'I was going to ASK you if you would name one of your chickens Esmerelda!'
We looked at each other with mouths agape. We had no words. There ARE no words to speak on such an occasion.
(This does not however prevent you from babbling on about it in print though does it?)
You weren't there (), you don't know a thing about such a psychic phenomenon. *I* don't know a thing about it either, except when it happens to you, it's impossible to speak for a while. It's the only proper response to such a gift.
We are still blown away at the entire incident and will probably never recover. So I've given it up.
It's what happened.
The next morning I went out to let the chickens out and there in the nest that Esmerelda had been preparing, was her very first egg. I could not believe the timing. It's like she was waiting to have her naming before she was going to start laying eggs. :-)
*
*
*
*
*
Here is is:
What you say?
That egg is green.
Why yes, it is!
I haven't had a moment to look into it, but Esmerelda is what is called an 'olive egger' breed, or at least she has that in her bloodline somewhere.
C. held the egg for me this morning so you could see it's size well...
So, that's our adventures so far in the visit.
Just wait till be start eco dying papers together.
Who knows what magic may happen?
Stay tuned....
(Frankly, I think they made the whole thing up.)
No, my dear friend... YOU are the the made up thing.
(Yeah right.)
I'll give you the last word if it makes you feel better.
(Damn straight.)
She's stunning in person.
The other hen has lovely variegated feathers with some gray/lavender ones here and there.
Such complexity!
So I have been keeping an eye out for any 'egg laying' tendencies and the other day I caught the black hen fussing around in one of the nests and finally settling down in it. But.... no eggs.
This went on for several days.
I keep saying... the black hen, the other hen, the little chicks.
No one has a name.
And as you know... this is practically blasphemous in my world. But I was waiting. Just waiting. I didn't want to impose anything on them. I wanted to see if it would come organically.
This hen has the most beautiful all black eyes. Very mysterious and deep. Right after I took this picture, I sat quietly looking into her eyes and sort of asked her 'what is your name I wonder?' and lightening fast it came.... Esmerelda.....
Just like that.
And I thought... well there you have it. That's how it works.
So a day or so later, my friend C. came to visit me for a week to attend our 50th class reunion. Yeah, we're old as dirt now.
We went out to visit the chickens and there was the black hen sitting in the nest again. C. asked me if she had a name yet and I told her the above story.
She looked at me and gasped in disbelief. Speechless for a moment.
Now my dear and faithful, long-suffering readers. I am going to ask you to trust me as maybe never before, I promise you this is what happened.
C. said, 'I was going to ASK you if you would name one of your chickens Esmerelda!'
We looked at each other with mouths agape. We had no words. There ARE no words to speak on such an occasion.
(This does not however prevent you from babbling on about it in print though does it?)
You weren't there (), you don't know a thing about such a psychic phenomenon. *I* don't know a thing about it either, except when it happens to you, it's impossible to speak for a while. It's the only proper response to such a gift.
We are still blown away at the entire incident and will probably never recover. So I've given it up.
It's what happened.
The next morning I went out to let the chickens out and there in the nest that Esmerelda had been preparing, was her very first egg. I could not believe the timing. It's like she was waiting to have her naming before she was going to start laying eggs. :-)
*
*
*
*
*
Here is is:
What you say?
That egg is green.
Why yes, it is!
I haven't had a moment to look into it, but Esmerelda is what is called an 'olive egger' breed, or at least she has that in her bloodline somewhere.
C. held the egg for me this morning so you could see it's size well...
So, that's our adventures so far in the visit.
Just wait till be start eco dying papers together.
Who knows what magic may happen?
Stay tuned....
(Frankly, I think they made the whole thing up.)
No, my dear friend... YOU are the the made up thing.
(Yeah right.)
I'll give you the last word if it makes you feel better.
(Damn straight.)