Greetings Colorado Earthlings! It feels like I've been lost in space, although tonight I FINALLY caught up on reading all of your touching posts. @uzisuzuki I've been thinking of you lately, since I wound up with a darling, dainty gold-laced Sebright pullet, and have fallen quite in love with my little Fannie. And you've been such a wonderful inspiration in your chicken and pea fowl and dog and horse and other animal love that I can say you most definitely have inspired my with how right you are in your chicken husbandry (wifery?) @21hens-incharge I've been thinking of you and this crud that you've had that I hope you can recover from soon. I, too have a little hen who's very sight-impaired - my Schocki, the Chocolate Bantam Orpington, got pecked by one of the no-longer-in-my-flock hens, right in the eye. It's all milky white, like a cataract, and she really can't seem to get the mealworms when it's that time. However, she waits patiently until all the greedy gobblers have taken their turns at the food dishes, and then she eats - all day long! @COChix I've been thinking of you as well, because Meggli (aka Nutmeg) is huge - the largest of my hens - and although she, like EVERYONE ELSE, is in molt and therefore not laying, she's very healthy and seems very happy. You've mentioned your move to Englewood, and I wonder when and whereabouts and how you will get all your things and creatures moved? @Latestarter I'm sorry to hear of the ongoing problems with the egg eating and possible cannibalism. The question of mice is an interesting one, and I wonder whether that really could be the cause of that really distressing behavior. Last December, right around the time that my pullets became hens, one of the neighborhood cats decided to have a litter of kittens in my back yard, behind my chicken coop. The kittens grew up very respectful of my hens, and I haven't had any problems with mice in my home or around my yard since that peaceable kingdom came about.
And there's much more. I wound up purchasing 4 chickens at Wardle's about a month ago, since my older flock was in molt and not producing any eggs, and so now I have a Splash Wyandotte hen, the little Sebright, and Red Star and White Leghorn pullets. I'm still not getting any eggs, but now all my babies are out of quarantine and my yard is full of lively chickens and poo. Sigh.
I'm just barely going to have my coops weatherized and the heated water bowl cleaned and plugged in by the time the cold and wet arrive on Wednesday. I hope for all of you - all of us - the best possible winter and a swift return to healthy, happy, and fully laying flocks!
to the added hour of sleep, but 
of dark so early!
