Blessed are the peacekeepers

Another reason why we love chickens.

Happy Holidaze

We call this rooster, bought at a tag sale for a couple of bucks, The Dude.

In summer, the hens sometimes roost on the porch next to him. We're not sure what that means.

Rogue chickens in California!

Here's a news story lede we love:

FAIR OAKS, Calif. - San Juan Capistrano has its swallows. Rome has its starlings. Fair Oaks has chickens.

And here's the story, by Eric Bailey of the L.A. Times.

More stories rom the chicken beat

Chickens, chickens everywhere!

Fall brooder

One of the Araucanas has started sitting on the eggs--something that has only happened in spring around here. I looked up Fall Brooding on the web, and found this great chicken link.

It will be nice to have some chicks around, but not sure it's going to be so easy keeping them going when the weather gets cold.

In defense of chickens

Okay, now this is just wrong.

Which came first, the chicken or the Peep?

I meant to post this awhile back: It's downright amazing what people can do with a coupla boxes of Peeps (besides eating them.)

Chicken news of the weird

Sometimes when I'm roasting a chicken I wonder whether the hens out in the yard know what's going on in the house. Wonder what was going through this hen's pea-sized brain as she roosted outside a McDonald's.

Roost-er-Rama

As I may have mentioned, many changes coming to the mountain, with the slicing and dicing of the farm down the road (now they've put in a flagpole), and new residents at the house up the road. Yesterday I heard something interesting: another rooster crowing in the distance. Could it be a rogue travelling rooster out in the woods?

Dan heard it, too.

"What did you do to that extra rooster?" I asked--I knew, but--I didn't know. Rooster reduction is the man's job. The rooster left one day in a pillowcase in the backseat of Dan's car and didn't return. Call me Carmela.

"I took him to the 'farmer in Vermont,'" he said. (This is the expression we used to tell our daughter.)

"You sure you didn't just drop him in the woods?"

"No, I'm sure," he said. So the mystery continues.

More on the topic of roosters today from washingtonpost.com's Celebritologist, Liz Kelly:

Also, my favorite tidbit from today's Morning Mix was the fact that Matthew McConaughey has a brother named "Rooster." I mean, why don't we just go one step further there? Also -- David Sedaris fans might be interested to know that Sedaris also has a brother who goes by "Rooster" and one of his stories about The Rooster's relationship with their dad is one of the funniest things you'll ever read. I'm linking to it now here, but trusting that you'll hold off on reading it until after the discussion: You Can't Kill the Rooster (David Sedaris, 1998)

Check it out. It's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Eggistentialism

Sold a dozen eggs yesterday to a passerby who'd seen the sign I just put up at the bottom of the road. Three bucks a dozen. Then I get a copy of this week's New York magazine and see that we're at the low end of the pricing cycle!

Here's an interesting take on eggs at the supermarket.

And here's another take from Gourmet on eggs.