Welcome Lily and Marsha.

They've been very slowly getting to know the main flock. After an entire 2 days in their crate moving closer to the main flock in the fenced in coop area, they spent about a week with the new girls fenced in and the main flock allowed to roam so they could see and talk to each other but the main flock couldn't do anything worse then yell at them. After everyone seemed to be calm about eachother's existence, they got to share the same fenced area and a pile of treats.

It's been a couple days now and although they sleep in the same coop now and don't fight, they don't hangout together either. The new girls tend to hang out at the coop while the main flock go on their noon nap under the deck, afternoon walk along the bushes, and evening scratch in the long grass. Hopefully they will eventually become all the same flock, but I'm okay with them being polite roommates for now.

Lily and Marsha were sold to me as "ready to lay" which means they're the right age to start laying any day now, but as with most biology, there is a margin of leeway. They're Amerucana Blues which means that even in a few months when they are their full size, they'll still be slimmer than the rest of the flock. They're going to lay blue shelled eggs and the first one will likely be so tiny that they're useless... but I'll try to remember to get a photo for you. :-)

I know it's been a while but with everything involved in integrating the new girls including changing crate liners two to three times a day, as well as a few escapes when the scrawny new girls decided to brave squeezing through the electric fence instead of waiting the 5 more minutes for me to come get them and bring the crate in for the night.... well I've just been tired.

I've also been getting back to learning french and programming as well as journalling regularly. I used to think that journalling was just for getting out big feelings, but I've gotta say, having a place  to plop all my random thoughts and plans and things I wanna do and books I wanna read and thoughts on a video I watched and all that stuff. I have been leaning into trusting my systems because honestly, there is NO way I am going to remember everything I want to remember, but I don't have to as long as I record it somewhere I can find it.  

Yesterday morning I opened the freezer to a sad sight. Four litres of duck broth that I had carefully made, skimmed, and filled to what I THOUGHT was a reasonable level to allow for expansion.... decided that they were going to smash open their jars despite the generous headroom available. All that effort, wasted. Ugh. This is part of the reason why I do canning. I just didn't have the spoons this week.

There's warnings coming now that Hurricane Lee will likely hit here on Friday or Saturday. but don't worry for us. We have food and water and a battery powered radio and a safe place to tuck the chickens indoors while the worst goes by. Stay safe and know we will too. :-)