Portrait as promised

In the last post I promised to get a picture of the proud Papa of the new chicks. Actually, he pretty much ignores them. I think he's mainly interested in the adult hens.He is a pretty good rooster. He lets the hens eat first. He and I also have an understanding. I'm also a rooster, but I can whup him, so he doesn't challenge my right to be in the chicken yard. However, he doesn't have this agreement with the ladies of the house, and he'll sneak up on them and —ATTACK! Carol, our live-in city girl guest, won't even go into the yard now. But she does stand at the gate and voice imprecations at him. She's like the lamb on the roof telling the wolf how bad he is.

The chicks are doing fine, by the way, cheeping merrily and making Mom nervous when they scoot through the fence and she can't follow. They don't seem to mind the chilliness lately, either. They can also hop over the threshold into the coop through the chicken door. With all our previous batches of chicks we had put a ramp there so they could get in and out. We needn't have bothered. After all the time-consuming TLC we gave our previous batches, I think a rooster and mother hen is definitely the way to go. No more 3AM feedings, no chicken smell in the living room, no plaintive cheeping—I think they were bored in the nice brooder we rigged up for them.

Next post will be something completely different.