The Lovely Chickens

This is George, Sylvan's birthday chicken. George is named after our plumber, mentioned in the last post. We don't know what George's breed is, but he's tiny and very fancy looking. He and Shadrach, our regular sized rooster, seem to coexist quite easily. George's crow is very small and screechy, Shad's is more typical Cock-a-doodle-do. George has a partner, whom we call Sharon, after real-life George's partner. Real-life and chicken Sharon are women who have minds of their own. Sometimes the chicken Sharon takes off for awhile, perhaps to go dancing or singing, like her namesake.

Below, the flock is pecking some cracked corn:
Here is one of Shadrach and Poule's offspring from last summer, an Araucana and Buff Orpington mix. Now she is laying eggs along with her sister! Her biological mother, Poule, is at right, but you are looking at her bottom.
I say "biological" mother because Minerva was the one who actually sat on the eggs and raised the babies up. Minerva died last fall, sadly, but at least she experienced the joys of motherhood! And even more interesting, Minerva had a mother's helper, Rainbow, who began to co-parent the chicks with her a couple of weeks into their life! Rainbow nested with Minerva and the babies, she kept her eye on them, brought up the rear and waited for any laggards, etc. It was darling to watch. A very modern approach to family life, all around!

Below, here are a couple more examples of the technique Robinsunne showed us at the library. In my convalescence, I played around a bit more with it. The tissue paper is the plum color, with a cardstock blue background.
The one at left reads: "The freedom to be yourself."