When I do school visits I bring my picture book, Tillie Lays an Egg, a hen, and feathers. At the end of the program, I encourage the children to write and illustrate their own stories about chickens. I tell them that the chickens in their story don’t have to look like mine, that chickens come in all shapes and colors. I tell them that chickens can be black, yellow, blue or white, speckled or striped, with glossy feathers, or feathers that look like fur.

They take me at my word.

I wish that I could bring all of the children to a poultry show. What would they draw afters seeing this Ancona pullet?

I tell the children that chicken legs can be any color – grey, yellow, red, black. Now that I’ve been to the poultry show, I’ll add spotted to that list. I can’t wait to see what the children draw after my next visit!

PS I’ll be doing a storytime at the Concord Public Library on March 16. Please come!

A poultry show as large as the Northeastern Poultry Congress always contains surprises. I’ve gone for years, and yet each visit yields at least one stop-me-in-my tracks, oh my gosh, what is that? moment.

I’m sure that most of you have read about the recent research that points to feathered dinosaurs. In fact, this article says that certain dinosaurs had feathers colored like a Speckled Hamburg!

Some modern day chickens look more dinosaur-like than others. This Red Pyle Modern Game cockerel has an ancient look about him. But, he still looks mostly chicken.

But, this guy looks all dinosaur to me.

This young cockerel (hatched in May) is a Malay, which is a very old breed that originated in Southeast Asia. Mature, a Malay rooster stands 3 feet tall.

He looks like a fellow not to mess around with.

But, luckily, I met his breeder, Vlad, who handles and trains his show birds, and says that although his Malays will chase cats off of the property, that they are sweeties with people. I was walking around the show with a group of folks who read my blog, and Vlad let everyone pet this phenomenal bird.

And then I got to hold him.

I held a dinosaur.

It’s mating season for the Red Fox. We see their tracks in the snow. We hear them at night, close-by in woods behind our house, yip-yipping to each other. In the daytime, I see them from my office window, trotting across the meadow.

I’m glad they’re here. Foxes are beautiful creatures, and keep the vermin population in check. But, it’s best to take precautions. We’ve been tucking the hens in earlier at night, and waiting until well after sunrise to let them out. And good dog Lily has been letting the foxes know where their turf ends and hers begins.

I found this odd egg in the nesting box.

If I see an egg like this in the summer, I worry. Perhaps an older hen is having difficulty laying. Perhaps the flock’s diet needs adjusting. But, I’m delighted when I get an egg like this in the winter because it means that one of the girls is back in production.

In order for an egg to by uniform in shape and color, it needs to be moving, and slowly rotating, all the way along the reproductive tract.  My guess is that this is the first egg laid since the molt, and, for some reason, it stayed too long in one spot in the oviduct.

It tasted delicious for breakfast.

Dawn came pink and sparkly. An hour later, it was blue and white. Pretty is too bland a word for the world outside on this cold but still morning.

Yesterday, the chickens and goats were all safe and snug in their barns while the snow fell. This morning Steve shoveled a dry patch in their pens so that they could enjoy the day.

The fish move slowly through the pond.

It all looks peaceful, but look closely and you’ll see tales of wild animal comings and goings.

A fox trit-trotted past our back door.

It’s fox mating season, and Lily has been waking us at 5 am to let us know that the males are yipping in our woods. This fox cut through our front yard. For some reason, it make a half-loop. I wonder what caught it’s attention and caused it to swerve like that?

Near the stonewall is a high traffic area. I see meadow vole, fox and deer tracks. I doubt that they were all there at the same time.

But, the animal that leaves the most tracks is Lily.

As I sat and wrote this, Lily’s barking alerted me to a fox cantering through the meadow across the street! I saw it’s plumed tail disappear into the woods.