A new(ish) flock for the new season

As the warmer days of spring began to play with our emotions amongst the stubborn blustery days of March, our backyard flock went through a bit of a transformation.

Saying goodbye to Moo:

  Our beloved Golden Comet and champion egg-layer "Moo" was stricken with an unknown chicken illness mid-March. She stopped acting like her usual active and cheery self, and despite our futile efforts to nurse her back to health, she passed within a matter of days. Although we have our theories, we are still uncertain of the exact cause. We hope she had a lovely life free-ranging in our yard and we are thankful for all the yummy eggs she gave us. She will be missed! :*( 

Moo standing guard as Twink finishes her dust bath.
She sure did love those old tires! 

Finding friends for Twink:

  Generally, chickens don't thrive all that well without some buddies. After about a week of solitude Twink seemed tired of being alone (and we were tired of the egg shortage), so I began to look into buying adult hens. I found a guy on craigslist with lots of hens that had just started laying, so we went to check them out. We ended up with three different kinds. I think they are all beautiful and we've had a lot of fun watching the four ladies establish a new flock! 

"Twink" checking out the newcomers

Clockwise from Top: "Goldie" the Buff Orpington, "Moo II"
the Golden Comet, and "Peck" the Barred Rock