Not a good day for us hens here in the hen house....The Mrs. was gone all day and we were literally "cooped up". This gorgeous weather and we couldn't forge any for worms or bugs just waiting for the other girls to eat...they say they are so yummy! The Mrs. and SK lifted some stones yesterday and wow, does Mary know here name!!! SK called out "Mary, come get this worm" and she came running!!! If they had called "Dolly", I would have not come b/c I don't eat worms!!! I only like the good stuff like bread, raw sunflower seeds and wonderful lettuce the Mrs.'s daughter saves for us! Don't really know what makes me so fat, but I suppose it's just the way I am built...big breasts, thighs and legs. I think I was named after someone famous!!!. Boy, if I had been in any other hen house, I'd be in someone's pot by now since I don't lay eggs!!! At least that is what I heard Jake and Phil tell the Mrs.!!! I feel very fortunate now at my ripe old age of 2 and never given birth or even raised a chicken-tot.
Announcement: Our gender has finally made some T.V. time!!! April 2nd, Friday all my cousins will be on Martha Stewart. She's one kind of a woman I hear. Wish we had a T.V. in our hen house for us to watch! It's all about "Back Yard Chickens"....and the Mrs. says she got a notice via of egg-mail (email for short) from mypetchicken.com. Go to that site and you will see there are "chicken lovers" all over the world. Interesting! The two new chicks the Mrs. got to put under me have moved to a small pen inside our pen! The heat light keeps them warm and last night they slept in their "box nest" with the light close by to feel warm like they are under moi!
Can you believe the Mrs. did that to me a couple of weeks ago!!! I fooled her!
Thought for the day: Don't jump out of the frying pan into the fire! (I learned that a long time ago!) Dolly

With all this eggstra special weather yesterday and today our girls have had a great time just scratching around their yard....the Mrs. back/back yard. No one can see us except the must dreaded "chicken hawk"....With the leaves not on the trees yet we are a target for any of those mean relatives that fly over, although when the Mrs. is home she lets us out and keeps a pretty good eye out for our mean feathered friends. As a matter of fact, with that nesting eagle soaring he loves fresh chicken too! We got out today for about 2 hours and had a wonderful time fluffing our feathers!
The Mrs. grand-daughter, SK came yesterday and all the girls were talking about her Uggs!
"Princess", our fashion hen searched those Uggs up and down looking for diamonds! The Mrs. has stopped wearing her rings into our area since Princess has such a fetish about such things. You'd think she was looking for Prince Charming to come and invade our domain! You know we have a couple of buff brahmas (hens) in our pen who sport a pair of Fuggs themselves (that's feather-uggs for short). Their feathers on their feet are almost as pretty as those Uggs...SK had on. I guess we need to call them the Fugg sisters instead of Mrs. Cluck-cluck and Tracey!
Today someone ate Mary's egg! The Mrs. came out to feed when Mary was on her nest and when she came back later in the day Mary's eggs was gone! The Mrs. looked at all of us to see who had "Egg on their face", but we are pretty good about wiping it off after we have done such a thing! None of us will tell!
Till next time: The one with egg on their face is the guilty one!

The weather has been just eggstra special eggspecially after all this cold stuff. The girls don't lay or eat as much in colder weather so, watch out girls...the fat is coming on this summer...eat your heart out!
Today was a very bad day for the Mrs... She and her grand-offspring went to 'market' to get feed and came home with me two of those tots I was talking about earlier...well, they waited until I was on the nest (which has been longer each day) and stuck those babies under me. I wondered what in the world was wiggling around and to my dismay, there were two of those chicken-tots in my nest. I sat a while and thought about how to handle this situation and really didn't want be a quiter to the Mrs. but I took all I could take and just jumped out of there and never went back...not sure that I will ever go back in there!!! Sometimes the Lord knows what a hen needs and it's not chicken-tots!

I then heard the Mrs and her offspring fixing a place to put those two until they got big enough to be with us girls...whew, was I molting this one!!! Guess the Mrs. learned her a real chicken lesson today!!!

Thought for today....don't count on the hens after the chicks have hatched!!!

Let's get over this winter weather so I can nest!

The Mrs. thinks I am trying to nest...Wonder why! I have been sitting on the other girls eggs now most of the day until the Mrs. grandkids come out and just plucked them from under me. It makes me so sad to know those eggs are going into a cake or scrambled eggs and not hatch. But after all there is no rooster around here so they won't hatch anyway. Oh, well.

Today I was sitting on the nest just singing away and here struts in the Mrs. with her basket! There goes my toasty eggs! As she left I heard her say that she wondered what I would do if she "snuck" a couple of chicks under me!!! I'd absolutely freak out!...but the more I think of it, maybe I'd like it. My hen instinct tells me to nest/raise chicks! Maybe if she did that to me it would make my life complete. After all, singing hasn't gotten me on the opry yet!

Now if the Mrs. does the above I will let you know, but in the meantime I will just keep sitting and singing. I have gotten a bit older now and my voice is much more mature. I sing in a contralto now instead of the soprano voice of the other girls in the coop. Acutally you ought to her Mrs. Cluck-Cluck when the Mrs.rounds the corner in the morning...she acutally giggles. I think she is a bit immature, but who am I to judge. Then there is princess....she lets out almost a scream when she sees the Mrs. come. I can't believe those girls get so excited about getting a few sunflower seeds.

I heard today that SK and a friend, Emma came to visit the Mrs and took a couple of the beautiful eggs the girls labored over and painted them. I think it must be Easter time which means I am 2 yrs. old now and not an egg to my name but what I have horded from the other girls. The Mrs. blew out the inside of the eggs, (I heard her doing this one day) and let those girls paint them...I did get a peak and they are beautiful. They were even able to put a beautiful bow on the eggs and I think I heard them say "hang them on a tree"....well, isn't that a bit strange! Oh, well, these people. I think the Mrs. is going to blow some more out for the other to paint!!! What people will do to put on a tree! The Mrs. went to Austria with her Mr. about 4 years ago and came home with 20 beautiful hand painted eggs. They hang in their sunroom on a "artificial" tree! The Mrs. then takes them down and puts them away until it's time to put them out again. Isn't that strange what humans do to an eggs...Hang it!!! Oh, well. The Mrs. and her daughter had to round up the other hens today while I was "nesting"....seems that G-man had a friend over and opened the door and the girls went a flying out! The girls love for guys to come by (I think they get their hopes up for a prince to come by,but the Mrs. wouldn't let that happen). The Mrs. says the "chicken hawk" can see the girls when they are making their rounds and that would be the end of those girls! After all, it has been a year last Thanksgiving that we had to "bury" Lacey in the garbage can b/c of the hawk....I need to remind them of that!

I've learned to go in the "in" door and come out the "out" door. The Mrs. took a picture of that last week. The other girls have not learned to read yet, so I am teaching them. Mary doesn't have time to learn to read...she is busy making those prize eggs! I pretend she is my friend, but I really don't like her b/c the Mrs. always is bragging on her eggs. Then there is the Americanas...green eggs!!!
Those seem to be a prize in themselves. Of course, Princess and Chickadee lay nice brown eggs and the buffs (buff orpingtons) lay a pinkish brown egg, while the older hens (2 years this Easter) are laying a light brown egg. Oh, that just eats my heart out! I heard the Mrs. say she was going to save money this year and not have to buy any easter egg dye since the girls lay such a variety of colors! Sure!

I'll keep you posted on the chicks....if it happens!!! Maybe I'll like having a family of my own. I think I will tell the Mrs. to drive to Sonic and buy a cheeseburger, they give "tots" with it...don't you humans call kids "tots" sometimes...! I also heard her say she wasn't going there for lunch! Beats me!

Till next time ! Dolly!

New day. The Mrs. let us out of the pen for a while, wow! Now that we have an eagle living within miles of us I wonder if she really knows what she is doing letting us out! Eagles like chickens!
The girls told me they saw on HV (Henvision) there was a Bald Eagle's nest close to Jackson lake. The Mrs. passes by Jackson lake all the time going to work so I know it's not too far for an eagle to fly over our pen. Hawks like to eat chickens too, guess that's why they are called "chicken hawks". !! We are all in the pen and safe and sound for tonight.

One of our girls is blind in one eye. She developed some henvision problems when the dog got her when she was quite a bit younger. If she had not been young, she would probably not have survived, but the Mrs. saved her. She was in intensive care overnight and got special care and special food so that perked her up a bit. Enough to want to live.... The other girls and I wondered why she walked around with her head tilted but when the Mrs. realized she had some henvision problems and pecked at the food and missed it "Chickadee" got some special attention! We all have caught on when the Mrs. puts a pile of sunflower seeds all in one place for "Chickadee" to eat it! What we caught on to is we also can eat from her pile! She squaks and squaks until the Mrs. puts her out another pile. Some smart chick! All of us girls love those other bird's shelled sunflower seeds and if we make enough noise we get our own rations every morning. Six eggs today! Some one of them are holding out! Not me! It's time to roost now...speaking about roosting, I sure wish Mr. Rooster would come over here to our pen...we are all really "hennie"! Know what I mean! The Mrs. just doesn't understand! Oh, well, "Some day our prince will come"!
Thought for the day: If you can't lay an egg, just pretend! It will get you a home forever!