Well the best of chicken lives have to come to an end, and our dearly departed Backup Chicken had a great run at EIGHT WHOLE YEARS! She died in the carrier – we think of heart failure – on the way to our bird vet, and the staff kind as they are just sent us the condolence card.  The chickens who pass away from our flock are cremated and disposed of by the same vet.

Hot Spare, Parity Bit, and Backup – we salute you as the trio that came from Renton. You done good. Backup was the last survivor and now she goes to her final happy coop.

As the rest of our girls are over three years old (and they have tended to last only til four) we thought to introduce some young bird blood. Thanks to a kindly chicken breeder in Tacoma we now have THREE  NEW CHICKENS whom Jason affectionately calls “The Babies.”

Above left see older chicken inspecting new chickens in carrier; right see Blue, Buff and Joan of Egg (aka Snowbutt). The last one was named by my coworkers from Age of Empires, and who also call her Jeanne d‘Ouef because they are fancier than I am.

She needed another name because Jason felt sure she would outgrow the feathers that make up her “snowbutt” – we’ll see. Meanwhile my team at work has their own chicken to root for, of the newbies.

As you can see in this closeup, they are still much smallers then the adult hens.

I admit personal fondness for Buff, the Buff Orpington. She definitely peeps a lot.  Blue is the most inquisitive and the friendliest to Jason.

Here’s hoping you are staying safe and sound. Summer is for peeping chickens !