Later today I’ll be bringing a hen to an after-school program to teach the students about chickens and eggs. Selecting the right hen for the event takes some thought. Not every chook can do the job.

Betsy was a superlative school visit hen. She is small, and so non-threatening. She’d perch on my arm and let child after child stroke her back. But, at the age of seven, Betsy has more than earned her retirement.

During my program, I show the children the vent that the egg comes out of. It’d be easy to illustrate this with Agatha, who is halfway through her molt and so has lost her butt feathers. However, this hen does not like to leave home and her friends. I don’t take chickens that stress out on visits;  Agatha will not be showing off her red bottom.

Amber is fine in the travel crate and patient with children. I might take her, if she lays her egg before we leave. But if she hasn’t laid yet (and she has been laying in the afternoon lately) then she’ll stay home. It’s very worrisome for a hen to need to lay an egg and not have a familiar nest box to go into.

Lately, Beatrix has been my go-to school visit hen. She has laid an egg this morning, and so I might just take her. By the way, that’s her “I’m laying an egg” glare. Beatrix looks far more pleasant when she is out and about.

Then again, it might be fun to take Veronica. She’s quite vocal, and chatters away while I try to teach, which the kids love. Veronica would also be a good example of what the molt is.

Or maybe I should take a classic hen. Nancy Drew would do.

I bet that the students would be happy if I left the chickens at home and brought Phoebe. (That’s not going to happen!)

Later this afternoon, I’ll post on Facebook which hen gets an outing. If you don’t follow me, that’s okay. You can simply click on the FB icon below to see my feed.

Speaking of events – I’ll be at  Let’s Talk About Food in Boston on September 27, and you can still sign up for the Chicken Keeping Workshop or the Advanced Workshop (taking place here in my backyard) on September 28.

Are you a gardener that ekes the last bean out of your vegetable patch before tidying up for winter? Do you put row covers down and nurture spinach through the winter?

Not me!

As much as I enjoy growing things (and then eating them) and being in the garden, I’m looking forward to the end of the season. I’m tired of kale and watering and picking worms off of cabbage. This was a strange year for my garden. It was beautiful but not productive. Now in mid-September, there are a few green beans left on the vines, but mostly it’s leaves. Tomatoes looked good all summer;  even now there’s no blossom rot or fungus, but tomatoes were never abundant, and I expect to harvest only a final bowlful before the plants are bare.

In a perverse way, this is my favorite time to garden. I like to rip it all up.

It’s my animals’ favorite part of the gardening season, too.

The goats don’t get any grain. Those bellies? They’re helping me to compost the garden waste.

Some see the end of the summer season with sadness. But, my gardening companions greet it with glee,

and gusto.

The chickens get their share. They find bugs on the plants, they eat the leaves, and they shred the stems. This all stays tidily in their own compost pile, which will be a soft and interesting place to scratch even as the temperature drops and the ground freezes.

Sweet Phoebe fills up on the end-of-summer bounty. I leave a few green beans in her pile because she loves to munch them.

I still have lettuce, bell peppers (although they never did turn sweet and red), Brussel sprouts and carrots in the ground. Once those are gone, I’ll let the hens into the vegetable garden to turn over the raised beds and dig up grubs. That might be sooner rather than later. It was 37 degrees this morning (for those of you who go by Celsius, it’s 3°.) I’ve a hunch that the first frost will come early this year.

Some of you don’t have this obvious ending (and relief that the work is over) to your gardening cycle. Do you take a break anyway, or are you planting your winter crops?

At this time of year I am oh, so tired of kale. My dinosaur kale pushed up leaves in early spring, and has been producing ever since.

It no longer looks appetizing to me. But, the bugs say that it is perfectly edible.

As a gardener, this time of year, I really appreciate having hens. Instead of feeling guilty for tossing vegetables into the compost pile, I have a ravenous flock that says that I’m the best farmer, ever.

Never mind that they don’t have good manners, and gulp down big pieces.

And eat with their elbows on the table.

They sure know how to say thank you.

What are you pulling from the garden and feeding to your hens?

This is my front yard. The greens have changed to their late summer hues.

One branch on one maple tree is always the first to let me know that fall is here.

Temperatures at night have been in the low 50s. Days have been warm. If this keeps up, it’s going to be a gloriously colored autumn.

The leaves aren’t falling yet, but feathers are. Like the trees, there’s always one that goes first.

Jasper has lost her tail.

This isn’t a case of feather picking. This is how she greets the change in the seasons. I’ve collected all of her lovely Welsummer feathers from the floor of the coop.

They’re exactly what I need for my school visits, and I’ll use them when I talk about the differences between feathers and fur, and to teach the children how one should pet a bird. Jasper’s loss is my gain. She’ll have feathers again by winter – a full tail of them! – but the trees will be bare until spring.