Lots to update on the happenings over the past several weeks so I'll get right to it!Our peafowl have settled in nicely. It's great to see them out there scratching around in the yard and enjoying their space and the 'Peacock Palace' as their shelter has been dubbed. Of course, when talking about Peafowl, the most amazing thing about them is the peacock's mating display! Our male is dancing and displaying daily now for the girls, as it's spring, and that's egg laying time for peahens. I've included a picture here of his beautiful display.
In chicken news, the girls are laying steadily now. We are getting between 6-8 eggs a day from the 8 grown up girls, and are awaiting the teenagers' first eggs. If you have followed the blog from the start, you will know we hatched out 19 babies in December. There ended up being about 50/50 baby roosters, to add to the 5 (of 9) silkie baby roos. As much as I would have loved to keep at least one of the barred rock roosters, we had to let them go. I found wonderful folks from the BYC forum who were willing to give my roosters good homes. Two went to the Raleigh area, two went to Midland and the rest went to a BYC'r in Eastern Tennessee. We sent 5 4 of the 5 silkie roosters and the rest of the standards to her back a few weeks. It was a really nice weekend getaway to drive up to Ashville to meet her and have some fun with the kids on the way home. We got to see snow and also do some 'gem mining' at a great place where they had an indoor, heated space to sluice and sort the buckets of ore. Good thing too - as it was about 30 degrees outside and the wind was blowing like crazy.
We decided to keep one rooster - Dusky. He's one of the silkies and has always been a favorite of mine. He does crow, but isn't too obnoxious and only during daylight hours. Hopefully the neighbors are not upset about that! He's a beautiful boy and starting to come into his own. We'll have to see if his ladies appreciate him as much as we do! He never wakes me up, but once I'm awake, I love to lie in bed and hear him crowing. I figure if he doesn't wake ME up in the morning with the chicken pen right near our bedroom window, it shouldn't be bothering anyone else!Finally, some musings about the blessings that having chickens have brought to us. One of the best things about having chickens and eggs have been being able to share our bounty with friends, family and our church family. We were able to provide eggs for our annual Easter breakfast back in March. I also take extras every other week or so to give away. Nothing like feeding the body while we are feeding the soul! Yesterday I had three extra dozen to give away at church and by offering eggs I was able to get to know one of our newer members a little bit better. By chatting over chickens, I found out she grew up in my hometown and we reminiced about people and places we knew in common. What a blessing!
