A hundred years ago, elaborate Victorian Easter postcards were mailed by the millions. They’re pretty and often feature fluffy adorable chicks. But my taste runs to the odder and more obscure. I particularly like this Humpty riding a rather annoyed hen.

However, even this card has the requisite cute chicks.

Speaking of cute chicks – my 25 arrive on April 1. I’ll be posting all about the preparations soon. The brooder gets set up this week!

How charming is this?

Before there were cheap plastic baskets, there were inexpensive paper baskets.You can still find them at flea markets, and they’re still an affordable bit of fun. I found this for less than $10.

Just look at the plumage and expression on this chicken! The back half looks like my Welsummer, but I’ve no idea what the front end is based on, which, I think, makes it all that more charming.

Does your Easter bunny have a vintage basket to put eggs in?

Even fluffier than my Pearl, are this pair of Cochins, as illustrated in the Biggle Poultry Book from 1895.

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In 1849 a ship arrived in England with six Cochins. They caused a sensation. Soon after, America also received their first breeding stock and soon Cochins were found at poultry shows and in flocks of the well-to-do. They’ve never been the most practical of birds to keep, although their persistent broodiness was a welcome trait in the days before the invention of the brooder. I’m hoping that Pearl will go broody in a couple of weeks, so that I can put my new chicks under her. Topaz, my Orpington (also a fluffy-feathered old breed) is already showing signs of wanting to sit on a next of eggs. Which hen will it be? The Cochin, the Orpington, or both? You never know.

My friend, Lauren Scheuer, has just had a book published!

She’ll be doing a book signing at the Concord Bookshop, in Concord, MA, which is right around the corner from me. Of course, I’ll be there. And I’m bringing cookies! A drab March day is a good day to make cookies. Of course, for a chicken event I needed to make chicken cookies. I used a classic sugar cookie recipe (I’ll post it another day!) to make these:

Cinnamon Sugar Chicken Cookies

I have a selection of cookie cutters. I have new ones and vintage ones. My favorite is the small hen in the center of this photo. I found it at a flea market, and I’ve never seen another. That odd rooster cutter on the bottom left looks like a naked-neck! I wonder if the maker of that cutter had ever seen a real chicken. The larger, old-fashioned hen is a classic, although I wish that she had a comb.

Clearly, there’s room for another cookie cutter in this collection. Perhaps I need this one, too?

I hope to see you on March 21 at 7 pm at the bookshop!

Quite awhile ago, I clipped an article from a magazine about how to decorate eggs with temporary tattoos. I’m not one for fussy or elaborate displays. I think that backyard eggs are beautiful just as they are, and that a basket of them needs no adornment. But, recently, I came across a company that makes the most gorgeous (and whimsical and artful) tattoos, and I knew that it was time to finally time to try this project.

I used their butterfly tatts. They’re very simple to attach. Just press a tattoo against the egg and wipe with a wet towel.

They looked so beautiful and cheerful in my egg cups. But, then I thought about a better place for the butterflies.

Now, despite the snow outside, I have a bit of summer inside of my house.

For how to blow out eggs, read this blog post.

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