Sunday morning was Chicken Time at the farm. Moving straw, dragging old roosts out of silos, installing waterers and feeders, sweeping and cleaning, moving feed, donkey cookies, hay around. We’ll keep the chickens in the barn for three days, then open up the doors and let them strut around the farm. Big challenge is keeping them away from Frieda for awhile,until our little Godzilla figures out they live here, and then she will protect them. That takes about three months.

Simon stuck his head in the barn window to watch the chickens, just like Mr.Ed. (I’ve always wanted an office with a window for a donkey) and Rose came in to check the chickens out. A strict Bedlam Farm rule is that Rose gets to meet all of the animals who come as soon as they get here, so she can include this in her map of the farm, which she carries in her head. She wasn’t drawn to them. Simon was hanging around all morning.

The hens are six months old, so we expect eggs sometime soon. The rooster – Winston -is appropriately officious and gentle. The former girlfriend turns out to be a true chore hog, a farmer’s wife who loves to wade into stinky barns (she found a very dead skunk in the silo this morning) and clean them out. A farm obsessive. Great find.

So here is the first Chicken Video, Vol. 1.More to come, for sure.