It's not an excuse to abuse sugar consumption ~ but have a chewable vitamin C preferably w/Rose Hips in the C immediately after you gave into the temptation of the sugar rush. We no longer have kids doing Halloween in our neighborhood since the homeless problem started around here so we have no candy to tempt us.

Sugar tax ~ this is all the sweetness I need ~ Blue Silkie "Betta"
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Such a sweetie she is ♥️😊
 
Found this yesterday. Promptly thought of @BY Bob View attachment 3974023

And had a visitor this weekView attachment 3974025
Your photos always hit me right! Beautiful rural scenes but this time your photo of a triple vehicle stack made DH & me laugh. When our cottage was being remodeled we thought it was funny when our contractor had 2 broken down trucks inside of his truck!
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Mrs Little Chicken

Has joined the ranks of laying hens.

She laid this wee beautiful egg just now. I know it’s hers because I had her and Flopsy in the summer house on their own sitting in nest boxes.

Not sure who the other punk egg is from but for size comparison.

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That’s actually a pretty decent sized egg for such a wee chicken!
Congrats on such a cute little egg!
 
Pony Sunday

Today I hauled a tick off Truly, and though I would show everyone what they look like close up (RC you can look away 😊).

This tick had likely been on her a couple days, I was digging through her coat feeling for them, which I try to do daily. Her longer winter coat is really hindering my search for them. Not sure why she is so prone to them, I rarely find ticks on the other two.

Top - you can see the head and the mandibles which dig under the skin and attach
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Bottom - and here you can see the legs
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Mr P was good until he moulted last winter; then one day someone broke one of his pin feathers and it bled very heavily. I sure did freak out when I say him coated in blood!

That was it, the younger hens learned they could pick at him and he wouldn’t fight back. If he blasted them, they would leave him alone. But he just puts up with it. Then they learnt his butt feathers were good also.
Poor boy😢

He is in the midst of a moult again so so until all his feathers have grown in he is to remain separated from the younger hens (tippy, Eli-too, butterscotch, muffy, little grey, babe, Ruth, cash, sue) who are the worst ones. Penelope will pick at him but I haven’t seen her break any pin feathers yet.

Last night I was checking him over, cleaning up some of the old scabs on his head and broke a pin feather, they are so easy to break. Some Ali-spray helped stop the bleeding and coated the pink skin and enticing pin feathers on his head from prying eyes.

Bert is 11 months old so he won’t moult until spring. But I am sure he would be like his Dada and let the ladies pick at him. I do see the younger hens and this years chicklets ‘grooming’ his head and chin feathers. He doesn’t even move from them.
The crested birds quite by accident find the other birds pecking the face helps them see better. Our old Silkie Violet discovered if she pushed her face into another hen's beak the other hen was more than obliged to trim Violet's eyebrows. Violet trained Suzu, Ginny & Dana to trim her eyebrows & they in turn have trained the 3 newest Silkies to trim each other.

However, your Mr P hasn't learned when to say STOP yet. The 1st year that Violet welcomed face grooming she didn't say STOP. She learned in subsequent years to allow grooming only so far.

Violet as a full fluff 8-month Silkie pullet
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Violet after letting herself get picked of her body feathers too ~ this is not moult but a pullet too timid to stop getting groomed by others! Her crest is bald, her tail gone, her outer body feathers gone!
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This is Suzu as a pullet who didn't know how to say STOP. Eventually as adults the Silkies get smarter about halting the eyebrow grooming when it's been enough.
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