Coop Update 10.18.11, and a Fall Book
October 19, 2011
A new season is upon us. Yay for fall! And yay for new (to us) chickens. Meet our backyard crew.
Here are Queenie (left) and Angie (right).
Queenie, who survived the summer's heat wave (Lovey, our sweetest chicken ever, did not), is a bantam mix of Polish and Barred Rock. (A nervous nellie from way back, she has been with us about a year.) Angie, a sassy Rhode Island Red and something else (at least that's the guess), is in charge now. See?
Penny, the Speckled Sussex beauty pictured below, usually stays in separate quarters because I can't take pecking order she treats Queenie like a serf.
Even though we miss Lovey, we are having fun with the new flock.
As far as books go, I stumbled across Leaf Trouble at a seasonal display at the library. (A great way to feature older titles, by the way.) Pip the Squirrel loves the tree where he lives and doesn’t understand it begins to lose its leaves. I appreciated the funny, fresh approach to potentially didactic subject matter. No doubt actual children, for whom the display was meant, will, too.
Happy fall, and happy reading, as always.
Leaf Trouble
Written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church
Chicken House/Scholastic, 2009
Bawk bawk! What beauties!
Posted by: jama | October 19, 2011 at 08:47 PM
Aren't chickens funny? At our place, the Speckled Sussex girls (dubbed "the Bobs" by a neighbor's kids years ago) are always extremely docile. And the Reds (whether R.I., N.H. or whatever) are generally a little aggressive. So much for breed profiling...
Posted by: Michelle | October 19, 2011 at 09:37 PM
Oh, I FEEL you on the pecking order. I cannot DEAL with that. I spent way too much time as a kid scolding and clapping my hands and removing chickens who were being "abused."
Erg.
That speckled chickie is Purty!
Posted by: tanita | October 20, 2011 at 04:52 AM
Thank you, Jama! I need to get some closeups of Penny because she is really a beauty queen. Angie is getting back feathers; earlier this summer, when she was elsewhere, she was the surviving chicken of a predator attack. She is just getting to be where she doesn't look like she was beat up in a bar fight.
Michelle, I think it's because Queenie is just so much smaller than Penny and acts so darn nervous. We're fond of our Queenie, but I don't think I'd get a bantam again. She's as high strung as a chihuahua.
Tanita, I just can't STAND watching them sort it out. I can completely picture you as the hallway monitor for the coop, too!
Thank you for reading, y'all, and for your comments!
Posted by: Susan T. | October 20, 2011 at 08:45 AM
Thanks for the chicken update! Sorry to hear about Lovey. :-(
Posted by: Mary Lee | October 25, 2011 at 08:12 AM
Mary Lee, yes, poor Lovey. We were so sad! She was the sweetest chicken ever.
How is the school year going? I'm reading to second graders again once a week, and I love it.
Posted by: Susan T. | October 25, 2011 at 10:47 AM
Great blog Susie
Posted by: Pam Kelley | October 26, 2011 at 12:18 PM
Thanks, Pam! You can see I get off track from just talking about kids' books...
Posted by: Susan T. | October 27, 2011 at 08:39 AM
Okay, Queenie is totally my favorite. Bantam Polish Barred --- what a combo.
Posted by: lauren scheuer | November 13, 2011 at 07:37 PM
Lauren, yes, a very kooky combo. Queenie is as high strung as a chihuahua. She just molted, and her miniature poof of feathers on her head has come back very nicely. I must take a picture.
Posted by: Susan T. | November 14, 2011 at 08:31 AM