Autumn At Jack's Henhouse...

The fall colors in the yard are very pretty this year. Got a few pics the other day as the sun was going down, hitting the back yard plants so they were just glowing...

The Contorted Redbud changing colors...

The crape myrtle showing off its fruit.

The Service Berry with spent fruit still hanging on...

And I discovered a volunteer Rabbit Brush. Pretty flowers, but IT MUST DIE.

 The Butterfly Bush hanging on to a few last blooms. The Hummingbird Moths LOVE them.

In the chicken yard, the pear tree still has a few fruit to go...

Imminent Disaster discovering that when your sister Dubious Intentions dustbathes, she churns up goodies.

One of the Cockspur Hawthorne trees displaying its fall colors, cool bark and drupes...

Bobbie the buff Brahma rooster molted a lovely feather...

At the very back of our property, the neighbor's some-sort-of-grape plant crowding through the fence. Not producing that I noticed this year.

 Sadly, one of the Curly Willows I grew from starts brought north from the old house when we moved got infested with some kind of tiny black bugs, they got under the bark and killed it.

I have another one planted elsewhere and it's doing well, and will replant this one in the chicken yard from cuttings from it--so all is not lost.

But dang, I wish I could move this dead one to the front yard, it's totally Halloween-creepy. And the curly branches are so photogentic! I plan on setting out the branches when we take it down, offering them to crafters in our area to come and get.

It made great shade and cover for the chickens, and they loved eating the leaves.

Speaking of chickens...

Left to right: Bobbie the buff Brahma roo, Chonk the light Brahma hen in back. In front, Henry the bantam golden-laced Wyandotte, Tater Tot the Belgian d'Uccle/bantam/Cochin mix, Sesame the Smokey Pearl, Slick Charlie the partridge Rock behind her, and Kana the Bantam Cochin mix next to her.

Eating is the main talent they all seem to have.

Chonk in particular. Here she is shooting me some quality Stink Eye for interrupting Food Time.

When Chonk is in your lap you know you're holding some serious chicken meat.

And nobody delivers 'Day of Judgement' scowls like Chonk does.

 

Meanwhile, Mjolnir is caught mid-wattle-fling like a paused-action 'starring' shot from a 1970's crime drama TV show:

Eggroll has settled on being a rooster, though no crowing or interest in hens as yet. His crossbeak has worsened a bit, but we're keeping it trimmed. Tell-tale sickle-shaped saddle feathers coming in on either side of his as yet still non-existent tail (God I love hyphens, don't I?). He's also working up fantastic dinosaur frill feathers above his eyes.

But nothing competes with eating for him right now.

Peanut continues to impersonate a Hoopoe bird with her Rooster Handle.

Pardon the food she's wearing above her eye.

In the front yard, our struggling MacIntosh apple is making lil' fruits, but is producing every year now.

It's total yield, they're the size of racquet balls:

 Also out front a few lingering flowers...

Most everyone is molting in prep for winter, there are drifts of feathers everywhere and nightmare-fodder pincushion chickens...pictures later if I can get them!

Halloween Chickens!

So, my husband brought home this cute little ensemble, saying, "Now we can dress up the dog!"

Looks like a chicken outfit to me, I told him.

So, in the grand tradition of pet owners everywhere, I give you...Halloween chickens!

First up is Sesame, one of the Smokey Pearl chicks we hatched this spring. Both have grown into lovely, striking hens with loads of personality. A very fun, friendly breed who have to be RIGHT at your elbow and involved in whatever you are doing, who also have a natural-born chaotic streak and lay their eggs in really weird places--plant pots, inside the feeder, in the middle of the coop, etc.

Sesame wasn't really into it at first...

But then she clicked in! Ain't she cute?

By the way, notice her eyes.  Both of the Smokey Pearls have a lovely, exotic swirly-marbled look to their eyes! Each eye on each hen is different from the other.

The fuzzy orange monster thing wasn't well received by any of the chickens, who didn't like the weight and tended to duck out of it.

 

Next up for dignity removal is Chonk, our light Brahma Head Hen.

Most of the pics I got of the chickens wearing this thing looked like this.

Here, Chonk promises a long, drawn-out death for me sometime tonight. Sounds fair.

This is is Bobbie, our buff Brahma Head Rooster.

About the best thing you can say about Bobbie wearing this is that at least it distracts from all the feather molting going on.

Ah! Here we go. An old pro at stylishly wearing silly costumes, this is Milton, our bantam Belgian d'Uccle/Cochin mix roo. Milton used to be Head Roo until Bobbie grew up and realized he outmassed him by several pounds.

As long as we're embarrassing roos, this is Bacon, a tiny Belgian Danvers rooster.

He didn't dig it.

Arson, a lovely light Brahma/silver pencilled Something-Or-Other mix that we hatched from an egg we got from a neighbor this year. Arson is very sweet, and SO pretty!

It's just impossible to get a bad picture of her.

She looks like she should be in a Halloween ad.

She was the only one to successfully pull off the goofy orange monster head.

 Lastly is Darling, a little gray mottled Belgian d'Uccle hen, daughter of Milton, seen above.

Darling tolerated this for a bare few seconds. After this, one of my neighbors behnd us starting launching fireworks into the air and picture time was OVER as all the chickens said 'SCREW THIS' and went to hide out in the coop.

I'm Almost Afraid To Look...

The snow has mostly melted away and the mud has relented enough for me to set foot outside, so off I trot to inspect the damage the blizzard did to our small chicken run.

As expected, the top is toast.

Bonus wild crow on the top of the coop acting as supervisor.

Chonk, the large white Brahma in the foreground and our Head Hen, disavows any knowledge of how this happened--and for once is blameless in breaking this particular thing.

The top was constructed of steel pipe. The weight of the snow bent it like it was nothing.

Luckily, we can reuse the hardware cloth and corner attachments. The additional bend at each corner was in this same pipe, and hopefully the two uprights will spring back into place once we take this part out...if not, we're gonna be doin' us some diggin', those things are anchored in cement about two feet underground!