This past August I was invited to visit the Ban Righ Center at Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario. This was a chance to talk with college women about the history of women on farms and chicken keeping. Kingston is very far from home, but the drive included a ferry crossing on a small boat across dramatic Lake Ontario. I love ferries;  I said yes to the trip.

It was a long drive, well north of Toronto, where I learned that that city has the worst traffic in North America (and very dramatic lightening storms!) But, the women of the Ban Righ Center were worth the miles. We had an extended conversation about matters of life and death in the chicken yard, and how a backyard chicken keeper deals with decisions about illness and euthanasia.

After the talk I was interviewed by Catherine Isaacs for her local radio show. We talked for a half-hour all about chicken keeping. You can listen to the podcast here.

*Just a reminder about upcoming events – I’ll be on a writers’ panel in Concord, MA on October 19, and there’s still room in the PIe Baking Class here in my home kitchen on October 26. More information is on my events page. Also, if you would like me to come and speak to your group, please email me.

Here at LIttle Pond Farm we are all members of the Red Sox Nation. Of course, we were very excited about the win last night.

The goats have a special affinity for this year’s team. How could they not when the Red Sox look like this?

The players even pull each other’s beard in jest, just like the goat brothers do.

So, this morning, Pip and Caper showed their Red Sox loyalty by donning baseball caps. Pip stuck out his tongue at the competing teams.

Caper looks jaunty and sporty, doesn’t he? He has everything that he needs to be a Red Sox superfan. Hat. Beard. Attitude.

Go Sox!

(Of course, being goats, they needed a little help (and bribery) getting dressed this morning. Gizi, in France, happened to be watching and took this screen shot. It’s always fun to see behind the scenes action of the famous, isn’t it?)

It’s molting season. Feathers are falling out and piling up in corners – the activity inside the barn mirrors what’s going on outside as multi-hued leaves are blowing off of the trees. Stepping into the Big Barn is like walking in on the scene of a pillow fight. Replenishing feathers takes energy and resources and so the hens stop producing eggs while they go through the molt. This break from laying will take up to three months. All hens that are over a year old molt, and they do it every year as the seasons turns towards winter. And yet, some of the Gems have not yet joined the party. Opal, the Delaware, looks as stolid as ever. She continues to lay a big brown egg every other day, which is surprising as Delawares were developed as a meat breed not so long ago in the 1940s. Amber, my perfect Buff Orpington, who never, ever goes broody, continues to be the golden girl, and lays her eggs almost daily. If you look at them, you’d never know that winter is on its way.

Most remarkable is Edwina, the ancient hen, who shows no sign of molting. Even her comb is upright and red like a young hen’s. I wish I knew her anti-aging secret.

Other hens in the flock are molting. Some, like Jasper, more dramatically than others.

Meanwhile, the LIterary Ladies are not yet a year old. Pullets are too young to molt. Despite the chilly nights and the earlier sunset, they continue to lay. Veronica, the Cuckoo Marans, who matured weeks later than her sisters, is now leaving an egg in the nesting box!

Her egg is not (yet) the dark chocolate color that this breed is known for, but it is darker than Nancy Drew’s light brown egg.

I’m getting four eggs a day from the six Ladies, which is a good number from the breeds that I have. They should keep laying through the winter, not at maximum production, but enough to keep my kitchen stocked. Meanwhile, in a few weeks, when all of the old hens have shed their tens of thousands of feathers (each hen has about 8,000 to lose and regrow), I’ll shovel out all of the bedding and detritus, sweep up the dust, and put down a new layer of pine shavings. But that’s for another day. There’s still lush clover on the lawn. The goats have been eying the grass that is greener on the other side of the fence. I’m going to take them for an outing.