Merrigold

"I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being." Psalm 104:33

I woke up Sunday morning and peeked out my window, something I like to do when I get up. I heard a ruckus going and directed my attention to the Big Coop.   Finally, the bantam rooster, had flown into the Big Coop and was fighting with Rhett, the handicapped rooster. I rushed outside in my pjs to break up the fight, then checked on the Banty Coop to make sure everyone was there since the coops had not been locked up overnight.  To my dismay, I saw more feathers than usual in the bantam coop.  I quickly checked to see who was missing. Finally, of course was there, and so was Ebony and Honeysuckle. But no Merrigold.  She was gone. My guess is that a coyote took her because just the other day my brother found most of someone's pet dog gone and we'd spotted coyotes up on the hill down the street in the past.

 

A friend of ours gave Merrigold to us in the summer or fall of 2010.  She was about three to four months old.   

She came with a bunch of other game bird crosses.  Out of that group, we picked four birds and then gave the rest of them to our neighbor.  We named the other three birds Buttercup, Clover, and Poppy. 

As you can see, we named them all after flowers but we spelled Merrigold's name differently because she sounded so happy when she talked.

   I called her our singing bird.

 Merrigold got along pretty well with all of the other chickens including the other games.  There were a few times she and some other hen would really get at it though.

When we had our first group of guineas, all hens, she hung out with them.

There was a time we kept her in the Big Coop but,eventually, when she was a little older and not laying very much, we moved her to the bantam coop.

 I enjoyed having Merrigold around. She was such a happy, pleasant chicken.  I loved to hear her sing.

 In the past few months, she and Ebony could just about always be seen with each other; dust bathing, hanging around the back porch, walking around the yard, they were constantly side by side. I know that Ebony misses her.

 I miss her too. I'm so thankful that we had Merrigold for as long as we did.  I only wish I had checked the coops that night; otherwise, she would still be with us today. She was a blessing to our flock. 

They're Pregnant!

"The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field." Proverbs 27:26

        I wanted to send in a blood test to see if our two does, Belle and Tana, were pregnant.  Mom already thought Belle was because she has been looking bigger (This is not an accurate test for all does. We have a better idea with Belle because we've had her for so long). I had two reasons for testing instead of the usual wait-and-see if they're pregnant. My first was that Gus had never been bred to any of our does before; he has kids on the ground with his previous owner but I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to be waiting in vain for the does to kid.  In addition, I'm planning to take Gus to the vet to get him dehorned because I like his genetics and the potential he can add to our herd. Now that I know, I won't have to wait till April or May to get him dehorned. Hopefully, we'll get him to the vet in March but I digress.

        With the help of my folks holding the does and the Lord for helping me get the blood on the first and second tries, I drew the blood Saturday and sent it to Integrated Dairy Services on Tuesday.  This morning,  I received the results. They're both pregnant! I'm thrilled! I can hardly wait to see what Gus brings to our herd.

Chickens & Cupcakes

 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." James 1:17a

 A couple of days ago, I had given our flock leftover cupcakes from Valentine's Day.  Every last one was devoured in minutes.  Later, I wished I had taken photos so I could write a post on how much they enjoyed their treat. Well, our neighbor gave us some leftover cupcakes today so I snapped a few photos of the chickens feasting on their new favorite treat. While I took a photo of this pretty cupcake, the chickens wondered why I was taking so long to give it to them.

 

Eema lunged for a bite as soon as I put it within reach.

 

                            Rhett, our Big Coop rooster, very much enjoyed the cupcakes too. 

 

They didn't like the chocolate cupcakes so much.  Here, Iris wonders, "What in the world is this? Where's my vanilla cupcake?" 

 

 The banties loved their vanilla cupcake too.  They didn't care for the chocolate icing though. 

             Sweet Ebony gently pecked pieces of cupcake off when it was her turn.