The Advent of TUF: Fiftieth

this moment i sit on my back porch balcony, having concocted this adult beverage. it's a fancy affair of orange juice, grapefruit preserves made by a good friend and traded for eggs, organic strawberries, and local vodka. _lovely._ as is the weather, warm and breezy and greensmelling.

i won't lie to you, Dear Reader. i've been holding out. holding out for that most holy of theoretical days, the Five Egg Day. i've got five hens a-laying, and i really wanted to mark the Fifitieth Post with a Five Egg Day. i also realize that april 10th marked the anniversary of my very first silly post, and i kind of wanted all these stars to align, you know? fiftieth post, five egg day, year of TUF. how poifect would that have been?

but nothing is ever perfect, which is exactly how everything should be. the ladies and gentleman have the full run of the yard now every day, and seem absolutely thrilled. we will occasionally leave them in their orignal run for a day, which they dearly loved at one time, but now they spend the whole time in there looking exasperated, as only chickens can. so these days they are pretty much as free-range as it gets for a Totally Urban (chicken) Farm.

i can't believe i ever thought
he was a girl.

tumblr, while nearly intolerably loud, appears to be a fine czar of the yard. he is vigilant and watchful, and often puts on a showy, strutting, clucking display for the benefit of his hareem. all the ladies have accepted his leadership at this point, and he seems to do a good job of attending the whole flock while devoting some individual attention to each hen. i know that sounds ridiculous, but i swear he takes them on dates. and he makes a variety of strange dinosaur noises: various forms of alarm or annoyance, surprise, his odd clearing-the-throat-while-howling crow, and the occasional elongated string of rythmically delivered clucks punctuated with bwak-KAWS turned up to 11. i have decided this particular sound is the chicken mantra, actually....they all do it, though tumblr does it at a spectacular volume, and when they are at it, it is unstoppable. bok bok bok bok BWAK bok bok bok BWAK KAW bok bok bok BWAK etc. happily, it doesn't happen THAT often.

the ladies have discovered that the yard is large and harbors many delightful nooks and crannies for surprise egg laying. i have had an easter egg hunt every day since easter, and now i completely understand where the tradition originates! why lay 'em in a logical place like the coop nesting box when you can lay them in grassy corners, between slats of leftover lumber, randomly on the ground...

so i sought to create some cozy egg-laying spaces in the exciting (to chickens) area under the porch/balcony in the back yard, with the intention that i could facilitate fun egg-laying practices while somewhat reducing randomness. we also stashed the haybale dan brought home the other day under there, since we have graduated beyond the $4 bag of hay days (and the bales are only $15!). we logically put it in the wheelbarrow, which we logically wheeled into the under-porch area for easy coop access. WELL.

the very next day i discovered this very ILLogical egg placement. spurning my delightful boxes, ninja and sammo laid their eggs right smack dab on top of the haybale! i guess no one ever accused chickens of being especially logical.

today, however, i found two eggs nestled in the big blue box. twitter and pearl seem to get it. oh well, as long as we're getting two and three eggs a day, i don't much care where i find them. the ladies take turns being the super egg champion!