Friday, November 9, 2007

Peepers and Puppers

Mama hen...aka "Vulken"....named since she is that breed of chicken...no neck feathers, ugly head, bred to look like a Vulture. God only knows why, someone would want to bred a chicken to look like a Vulture is beyond me!!

Vulken is 2nd generation chicken on the farm. Her mama was given to me and raised Vulken and then disappeared one day. Now Vulken is carrying on her mothers tradition of:

1. Never get caught
2. When put into the chicken coop, somehow get out the next day and thumb your beak at the humans
3. Act wild, that is unless bread is involved, then act friendly eat bread and then act wild
4. Coop in the hay stack and not with other common chickens

Vulken raised a white (amazing cute) hen this year and then Vulken disappeared. I figured she was upholding the tradition of her mother but one day Vulken appeared....but with baby chicks in tow. Now we all know, it is NOVEMBER for gimmeys sakes and hens should not be nesting but as we all well know Vulken has her own agenda. If Vulken would have been a human, she would have been the tattoo biker babe in High School that no one messed with.

Vulken has decided to raise her chicks in the barn and at night roost in the barn. Now this is fine and dandy, but when I get home I let the pups out. So yesterday I let the pups out as well as the other Border Collies. The pups burst out and ran down the barn alley way and then they spied the baby chicks and so they ran down to investigate. The pups are almost 8 weeks old and quite fat and huge. Vulken is the same size as the pups.

The chicks ran peeping back to Vulken and then.......and then this black flash was in the air, the puppers were hightailing it back to Peg. Peg was sitting at the far end of the barn...she knew better than to go near Vulken.


"Run, Run, run for your lives....." said the pups as they ran the race of the century back to the kennels. Vulken stopped at the mouth of the kennel, chattered at the pups who had run back inside their igloo and then she slowly walked back to her chicks, her feathers still fluffed up a bit.

Oddly enough, none of the other Border Collies were in the barn and I turn around to see where they were at....and lo and behold, several sets of eyes were peering from around the big barn door...not one paw was in the barn....and Rigby was also under the dogs. He was not coming in the barn with one mad hen!!

Vulken wandered back to the far end of the barn got settled in with her pups and was set for the night. The pups wandered out of the kennel and decided playing with Tess and Rigby was far safer. None of the dogs went to the far end of the barn and I put them all away for the night and as I walked up to the house past Vulken....I heard her say "Come closer and I will soon have you pretending you are Barbaro as I chase you up to the house".....

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