The Comb Says It All

You can tell a lot about the health of a chicken from the look of its comb.

A healthy hen will have a bright red comb...

that stands upright.

A pale comb, or one that lays over on its side is the telltale sign of

a stressed hen.

Poor Mathilda, here, is quite old and has reached the end of her days.

She no longer leaves the henhouse,

and prefers inactivity.

And you can see by her comb, that she is not in the greatest shape.

Some of my chickens are quite old.

And since we do not cull our chickens when they stop laying, but allow them to live out their

natural lives in retirement...

we have several chickens at any given time who are just plumb worn out.

As long as the other hens don't pick on them, I allow them to live out their lives

with the rest of their flock.

However, if I find one being henpecked, they are moved to the barn

(as was the case with Ivanka last summer)

I had thought that Ivanka's days were numbered...

and here she is a year later thriving in the company of the barn cats!

And speaking of thriving...

we have quite a healthy hummingbird population this summer.

At any given time there are several hummers around our feeders...

with the exception of this particular feeder,

which has become a popular hangout for the honeybees.

Free-loaders!

I wanted to quickly show you last night's dinner harvest...

We have tons of carrots right now...of all colors.

And how about these tiny eggplants?

I think they are called bird's egg eggplant.

I just love them!

And do you remember that repurposed chicken feeder that I planted?

Now look at it!

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We are in that time of year, here, when we see lots of deer in our fields.

Does, fawns, and bucks with velvet horns can be seen almost

every morning and evening...

grazing in the hayfield.

I never tire of seeing these beautiful creatures!