thank you, and to know another (little) chicken.

i will not be able to adequately articulate the effect of your kindness and uncommonly encouraging words here. you have all been so unabashedly supportive about us starting our own farm and it gives me/us such extraordinary strength to have you say such things. and strength is needed as it has recently dawned on me that we have no idea what we are doing. but that topic is for another day. today, i simply wanted to say, thank YOU. we are thrilled and anxious and our hearts are beating very very quickly with anticipation of this move. just five more weeks today. five more weeks until we are farming on our own.

so for today, i wanted to continue on with my endlessly fascinating (sarcasm intended) features on the sparkling personalities of the chicken coop.

and today that personality is a little hen christened mary catherine, but affectionately called egg. egg is my pocket chicken. she is, quite literally, a third the size of her colleagues. and so, she fits --nearly--in my vest pocket. i'm not certain why she hasn't grown since november but it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. she is fierce. and cunning. and a survivalist. and a Love Bug. she is the only chicken that lets me scoop her up for a snuggle whenever i please. i think she likes the relative safety of my arms. she knows, from the experience of the every day, that i will not drop her. that i will not pluck out her tail feathers with my nasty little beak (you bastard chickens can be sooo cruel). that i will not bully her away from food.  i usually give her a handful of grain in my arms so she can dine undisturbed. i bring her to the water fountain and give her several minutes of bodyguarded drinking.

but she takes care of her self. she has a brilliantly selected roost in the coop that she claims hours before the rest think about sleep. it is up at the top of the perches. right by the heat lamp. there she sleeps in  safety and in warmth while the others jostle on the lower rungs. she isn't afraid to venutre outside for nourishment but as soon as she realizes she is being bullied she flees back to the safety of the Top Rung.

she is a little peanut of a chicken. and julie (who snapped the photo above on friday) would also tell you as much. and nick is starting to come around to egg too. i'm not making any promises but we haven't had a house chicken since the days of sweet florence and it just may be time again.