Other posts in this series:
- The Beginning
- The Surprise
- The New Kids on the Block
- The Eviction
- Thelma and Louise’s Last Adventure
- Making New Friends (this post)
- The Pretty Birds Join the Brood
- The Attack
- Kidnapped!
- A New Home
Winter came and went with our two white chickens, Wilhelmina and Stacy, providing us with eggs. The coop and yard seemed somewhat empty now, though, with just the two of them.
Spring came. It was a busy time for us as we traveled out-of-state for my Ph.D. defense, I continued to teach at the university, and Chad began work to expand the chickens’ quarters (I’ll provide more pictures in the last segment of this series.) We didn’t think it was the best time to get new baby chicks, but we were hoping to find more adult hens.
Summer came. We celebrated our daughter’s birthday and mine. A couple of weeks later, we decided that our beloved dog, Maxine, was suffering so much that we should say goodbye to her. It was a very sad day for us.
We were glad she didn’t have to suffer through the brutal, dry heat that came that summer, but after so many years as a faithful companion to my husband (They’d been together about twice as long as hubby and I had.), there is still a loneliness without her.
This side note about our dog isn’t a complete tangent that’s unrelated to the chickens, though. While talking to the vet that day, my husband found that she would be willing to part with some of her older hens. They worked out some kind of arrangement (I don’t recall if it was payment or some kind of trade for something useful.), and soon, we had three new girls in the yard, all big, brown, and beautiful.
One was noticeably older than the others. Chad called her “The Old Lady.” I started calling her Ethyl. Another hen was a beautiful lighter reddish color. I named her Ginger. The third had darker feathers on her head and neck, and the first name that came to me somehow stuck with her. It had more to do with her attitude, for now SHE had taken on the most aggressive behavior, seemingly unaware that the white chickens had seniority on her here. Big Red Mama thought she was the new leader, and somehow, Wilhelmina let her assume that role.
Now, the two younger red hens seemed to hang out together. The white hens kept close to each other, and Ethyl, well, she just seemed glad to be by herself. Some of her feathers were missing, indicating the others may have been pecking on her a bit. She seemed resigned to her place at the bottom of the “pecking order.”
The dynamics of our brood would continue to change in the weeks ahead, though…
~Dana