Is My Hen Attempting a Reverse Jenner?

Background - As some of you know, we thought we lost one of our hens, Electra, before Christmas. Then one day my ever-suffering husband calls to say that Electra has come home and she has lots of ticks. "Holy', I thought, "that must really be a lot of ticks if you can see them on her." (She's a bit crazy and flighty, and you can't get too close to her). "No", says Shawn with a bit of an exasperated huff, "CHICKS. She has come home with CHICKS." Well that's a bit more exciting than ticks. Woohoo, who doesn't love babies? Although clearly I need to have a chat with Electra about appropriate behaviour and not spreading yourself around to the roosters.

So, fast forward several months.  We lost a lot the chicks to marauding magpies, butcher birds and crows, and ended up with three of the little dears.  Not such a bad thing as I would have had a lot to rehome, and to be honest, that hussy Electra will probably pull the same thing again.

The chicks are now grown and as luck would have it, 2 of the 3 are roosters.  It seems like overnight they started to crow.  Crow is probably not the appropriate description - screech with great glee is more apt.  It was literally overnight, my boys had grown up.  Then about a week later, they achieved their full rooster status - the Rooster Dance!  Wing down, high step, circle the hen and pray to the Gods that she will be accommodating.  They weren't.  But eventually they either wore some of the hens down and/or just jumped on them from behind.  No finesse, but goal achieved.

Imagine my surprise when I spied one of my hens, Honey, doing the rooster dance around another hen.  Surely I must be mistaken?  No, she did it again.  I thought that she might be displaying her dominance as top hen.  Traditionally she has been down the bottom of the pecking order, but there has been a reshuffling with the return of Electra and the maturing of her offspring.  She danced around Bunny, who is a lovely hen with a pendulous crop (picture Dolly Parton running across a pasture), not popular with the girls but VERY popular with every rooster that has come into our yard. 

Honey (artistic interpretation)

Fine, I thought, it's a 'top-hen' thing.  And then I saw her dance around my boys, Uno and Harvey Hen-Banger.   Now I don't know.  I think she's trying to be a boy, transitioning if you will.  I guess the pretty plumage of the roosters can be too much to resist.

She's still laying eggs though.  Perhaps it's only a half-reverse Jenner? 

Friday Follies - Family

I'm going to try and post something fun every Friday - either something from my past or just something fun or silly from my childhood.



How's that for groovy? I'm pretty sure that Mum was channelling Mary Tyler Moore. I honestly don't know what look Dad was going for, but those side-burns were something to be proud of.

I love looking back at old photos. One photo can take you back to a feeling and a time.

Looking at this photo makes me reminisce about the many times we were coming home from a night out. Scott and I would be all bundled up in our snowsuits, fast asleep in the back seat of the wood panel stationwagon (because everyone had one of those, didn't they?). I can hear Mum and Dad chatting about the evening, flashes of green and red traffic lights reflecting off the frost on the windows. The crunch of snow under tires as the car pulls into the driveway nudges me awake and then a blast of cold air chills my cheeks as Dad lifts me taking me inside. As he goes back out to get Scott (I always like to think that they get me first as I am the favourite, you know), Mum helps me into my flannel jammies and tucks me into bed with a gentle kiss on my forehead. Happy and simple times. It's probably an illusion though, and was not necessarily simple times for my parents. They would have been struggling with the pressures of a new house and two young children. And despite those pressures, we always felt loved.

Thank you, Mum and Dad for always tucking us in and keeping us safe.

Jumping Off the Proverbial Cliff

Here I go.....my first blog.  I've been talking about doing something like this for awhile, and thinking about it for even longer.  I finally had to tell myself, "Just do it".  So I am. 

What can you expect from me?  Hopefully some funny, silly stories.  I bore enough people with them already and a few have said that I should write them down.  They may regret it.  You will read some funny pet stories, some funny me stories and who knows what else? 

I have recently taken a couple of creative writing courses.  Fiction writing was never something that I wanted to pursue, and now that I know what is really involved, I'm still pretty sure I don't want to...yet.  I prefer to write more about real life or just silly satire.  Maybe one day I will decide to take a short stroll down the fiction path, just to check out the topography, geography and atmosphere.  I may go further, I may abort.  That's what it's all about though - not getting too bored in life and getting that grey matter fired up once in awhile.

What can you not expect?  Don't expect any enlightenment or words of wisdom that will change your life (unless a story about one of my asshole cats is the epiphany that you have been waiting for. If so, I may be your saviour.).  I can pretty much promise that you will never read that word 'journey' here - that word that seems to be prevalent in our culture at the moment.  To me, Journey is a great 80's power ballad band, best listened to at top volume in your car.  While singing.  Loudly.  That's my kind of journey.

There will be self indulgence in this blog, but I'm forcing myself me to write and improve my writing skills.  I'm lazy.  I need schedules and goals to motivate me, otherwise, yup, guilty as charged...lazy.

Welcome,  and thank you for joining me on my journey...ha ha, just kidding, I couldn't resist.