Harmonious Hens and Spring Rains

It really feels like spring here and we all are loving it! Our three hens are relishing all the open ground to explore and peck around. These three are pals - absolute pals! It's incredible given what we went through before. L.G., unbelievably, is head hen now. She went from bottom of the pecking order with our last flock, to a lone chicken, to one of three in our motley, rescued crew. It undoubtably helps that all three are injured or deformed in one way or another. L.G. (Rhode Island Red in the background) is missing tons of feathers, continues to deal with her crookneck and has one crooked toe, but she lays monster eggs and leads the other two hens. Anna Lee, on the left, daily deals with her dog injured leg, but is mobile now thanks to Steve's fix and some toenail clipping. Emmylou on the right navigates her route each day with one set of toes that are entirely curled to the side.

She's so sweet now though and often prefers to stand on the crooked toe foot. If we got her young enough, we probably could have fixed this problem, but it's too late now.

The girls love to forage for worms and other insects in the farm field behind our house. We continue to get lots of welcome spring rains.

So much fell last week that Steve dug a make-shift drain for some of the water passing through our garden. You can bet we are going to channel that water into a new wetland sometime soon! Our other constructed wetland is behind Steve in this photo. Look how happy he is to play in the dirt...you can tell he's a Dirt Dauber.

All this rain makes incredible things happen in the Midwest in spring. The soil saturates and vernal pools fill with water prompting an annual amphibian migration to procreate and then head back to their woodland homes, all before the dryness of summer. It's one of our most favorite natural happenings! We hiked at Mt. Gilead State Park last week and this one pool was loaded with wood frogs. Awesome. There are also some spring peepers calling and a western chorus frog or two. Check this video out, the wood frogs make that low quacking sound. Happy April!