Wood Hens

(Found this "lost posting" from early November....as a snowstorm creeps this way tonight)

The past 2 days have been sunny and about 50 degrees.

The new pullets have been taking the rest of the flock way up into the woods to scratch for bugs and other tasty treasures.

I followed them this afternoon and was a bit surprised to find Mrs Howell climbing trees to eat spiders.

Some of the pullets came down every hour to graze on the grass and then they returned up to the woods.

The older flock members like scratching around all the old stone walls that encircle this farm. Most were built, stone by stone, around 1780.

 These 3 pullets were under the old forsythia bushes by the old cellar hole soaking up the sun.

I found my elusive comet pullets over in the blackberry patch two fields away from the farm.

One of the barred rocks was with them.

Mrs Howell was in the compost pile by the afternoon checking out the 3 frozen chrysanthemum plants.

and the end pieces of some other squash.

As the sun set, the flock returned to the garden to make one last round before heading to the coop for the night.

 In the last of the light I discovered a surviving pansy and a newly shed feather.

The firebush is naked and there are less berries, as the hens pull them off and consume them.

Even though there is less leaves, flowers and plants to admire..... 

there seem to be more eggs to smile about...

Yesterday I found 4 nice fresh eggs in the nest box.

This morning I found 5 more, one of them being BLUE.  Our first.

Later I found a few more and one of them was a MONSTER egg.

Sunshine, spiders and left over Chinese white rice make for lots of eggs!

How are your flocks doing on these wonderful days ?