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Look what Bernie did today.

He built gates for all three of the deck step openings.

Now the pups can go out unsupervised and bark at things and we don’t have to worry about them terrorizing goats and chickens.

Speaking of the pups terrorizing chickens, I must tell you that sometimes the chickens terrorize the pups. Dolly gets very excited when Bernie throws her frisbee off the deck for her to chase.

But sometimes Duke can’t stand to see Dolly having so much fun.

And she has to do some pretty fancy footwork to get past him.

She actually thinks Duke is her friend and wants to play. She’ll abandon that frisbee to play with her friend.

Dolly thinks Duke is the best playmate ever.

Duke chases her all over the yard.

When she gets tired of being chased and retreats, Duke lets out a crow that just about shatters windows.

Diesel excitedly watches the entire exchange.

And this is about as animated as he gets over the whole thing.

On second thought, maybe the gates are to keep Duke from getting at Dolly on the deck.

You may know that I listen to the Backyard Poultry radio show fairly regularly. It comes on at noon, Monday - Friday, and I try to tune in while I’m working so I can listen to Andy’s interviews and chicken news. It’s a fun show and full of good info.

Last week I encouraged one of my blog followers, Jamie, to tune in to the show and on the first day she ever listened it, she called in for the Chicken Trivia contest - and won a six month supply of chicken feed! I almost peed my pants when I heard her voice on the radio, and imagine my shock when I heard her ask if she could split her prize with ME! I’m not kidding. So, thanks to Jamie, I will receive three months supply of chicken feed and a coupon for a discount on a future purchase. Woo hoo! Thank you, Jamie! You seriously are a winner in my book!

Yesterday we sent eight of the roosters to freezer camp. I have to give a BIG shout out to our friends, Steve and Louise, who came out to help with this most unpleasant task. While this was NOT something that any of us enjoyed, it went a lot easier than I anticipated and within two hours we had eight chickens processed, cleaned, and in the freezer. I intentionally did not take any pictures of this event, and although Louise did snap a couple, I’m not going to share them on this blog.

One of my broody Hamburgs hatched out four eggs last week - and she has been an amazingly good mama!

The last hatches are all getting so big and fluffy - look at these two cuties

And for the first time in a long time, I have NO broody hens. As much as I love having all the baby chicks around, I think we’re all ready for a break. I recognize a few more cockerels in the last few hatches and I’m really hoping we only have to experience one more culling this year.

Duke’s bumblefoot continues to be an issue. It gets better, then worse, then better, and… well… you get the idea. His position in the flock continues to slip, and I’m not sure how much longer he will hang on. He seems healthy enough and happy enough for now, so we’ll just play it by ear. Just look how happy he is:

Bobby Lee is desperately trying to maintain his Alpha position, but it comes with a cost. His fighting with Pico has left him without his beautiful, long Phoenix tail feathers.

Pico is larger than Bobby Lee. He’s also younger - and determined to take charge.

Never a moment of boredom around here with these chickens. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Today, Duke is modeling a faux denim leg wrap, accented with a small band of waterproof adhesive tape.

Nothing screams “Masculinity” louder than a faux denim leg wrap baby!

Bernie and don’t plant squash in our garden. Bernie does not care for squash - although he recently told me he does like Acorn Squash. Geez, the things you learn after 20 + years of marriage. At any rate, he doesn’t particularly care for squash and I’ve learned that people who grow squash are usually eager to share it, so I count on the generosity of others to supply a fresh squash once or twice a year to satisfy my taste for it.

So, when a volunteer squash sprouted up next to the tomatoes this spring, I was pretty darn happy to have just one little ol’ plant that would likely produce plenty of squash for the one person that eats it around here. I figured it was a seed from some Zucchini Bernie’s mom and dad gave us a couple of years ago. I remembered throwing the ends of the Zucchini in our compost pile, and we used the compost pile in the garden this year.

As time went on, this squash really started getting big. It began sprawling outside of the raised bed it was rooted in, and before too long it choked out the vegetables I had growing in straw bales.

This wasn’t especially upsetting to me because I’ve been very disappointed in my experiment with straw bale planting - but that’s another story for another time. The squash plant began to bloom and I began to get excited to finally see what the heck kind of squash we were growing. And this is what we’re growing:

OK, so all you squash experts out there - what the heck kind of mutant squash are we growing around here? And will it stop spreading or do I need to call the National Guard?

I ran out of gauze wrap, so I cut up some scrap material to make the wrap for Duke’s leg. This morning I wrapped it in baby blue bunny print fabric.

Fortunately, he’s so fat he can’t see his feet. Unfortunately, all the other chickens are laughing at him. He hasn’t spoken to me all day.

Bee Free,
Penny

Well, along with routinely sticking my finger up hens’ butts, I can now add performing minor surgery to my ever growing Chicken Ownership Resume - and to the list of things I never thought I would do.

A few days ago, I noticed poor Duke’s foot appeared to be a little swollen. Not the entire foot - just the bottom pad of his foot. He didn’t seem in any pain and he walked and ran as usual. But the next day, I noticed that his swollen pad seemed to be getting a little larger. I picked him up and examined the pad of his foot and found exactly what I was hoping I would NOT find. A small black scab in the middle of the swelling. Duke has Bumblefoot.

Bumblefoot is a type of Staph infection on the pad of the foot. Apparently, fowl, Guinea Pigs, and other creatures can get it. I’ve read many posts on the Backyard Chicken forums about chickens that got Bumblefoot but, to be honest, I never really paid a whole lot of attention while reading them because this was outside the realm of anything I had experienced within my flock - and ever hope to.

I decided to google Bumblefoot and treatments and interestingly enough, the Backyard Chicken (BYC) forums provided the most detailed information. Especially this information by Eggcentric. I am extremely thankful to Eggcentric and others for providing so much detail about diagnosing and treating Bumblefoot. If you own chickens, I believe you will find BYC an invaluable resource.

Although I was very unhappy to learn I was going to have to cut into Duke’s foot, I did feel confident that I knew what I needed to do and, in the end, Duke was going to be better off. I will mention that I spent some time calling every vet clinic in this area begging for someone to handle this for me, but each phone call ended exactly the same. “I’m sorry. We just don’t treat chickens.”

[NOTE: I am NOT going to include any graphic, nasty pictures. But I am going to discuss how this little surgery went. If you are extremely queasy, or eating as you read this, you may want to navigate away from this post right now. I honestly don't think the description is disturbing, but I don't want anyone hating me for not telling them I was going to describe a little bit of cutting and pus. And, lest you think I just enjoy writing about gross things, let me assure you that I am posting the below in the hopes that chicken owners who have never treated Bumblefoot may gain a little insight from my experience - which is, of course, different than the experiences I've read about because my chickens do NOTHING by the books.]

So, I went out at daybreak, grabbed Duke off his roost and said “Well, boy. It looks like we’re going to spend some quality time together this morning.” I won’t repeat his response.

All I can say is that I really wish Duke and his Bumblefoot had read the information on what a Bumblefoot “core” is supposed to look like and how it’s supposed to behave. After a long time of digging out the scab with an Exacto knife, the “core” I expected to find and easily remove was not there. Instead, I found strands of rubbery pus. Lots of strands of rubbery pus. And blood.

I have to believe the strands of pus were indeed the “core” I have read so much about - but it was not the single mass that I expected. Each time I inserted the tweezers into the opening, I would pull out another strand of rubbery pus. Eventually, I could find no more of it. And trust me when I say that Duke would tell you I really tried to find more. Poor guy. He did amazingly well and only jerked his foot a couple of times. I was very proud of him.

OK, so we got all the nasty stuff out of the foot. And then I was supposed to fill the deep hole with antibiotic cream. There was only one slight problem. There was no hole. What probably should have been a hole was filled with blood and nothing I could do would change that. So I blopped on a big wad of antibiotic cream and then gently pushed some of it into the blood filled hole with the tweezers.

Then I placed some sterile pads on the bottom of Dukes foot and bandaged his entire foot and leg. I was careful to wrap the bandage in between each of his toes so he can still walk and roost. I also hoped it would leave his foot feeling somewhat normal so that he wouldn’t pick the bandaging off.

I decided to keep Duke in a cage in the chicken run until he heals. I really have no where else to put the cage because I’m afraid it’s too warm in any of our outbuildings. Keeping him in the house is a definite no-go. We’ve tried that before. Apparently, when Duke gets unhappy about being in a cage, he crows. Loudly. Morning. Noon. And. Night. Even in pitch black darkness, Duke crows when he is in a cage in the house. So keeping him in the house is not a good idea.

But with all the pecking order issues we’ve got going on right now, keeping Duke in a cage in the chicken run didn’t work out very well either. Bobby Lee tormented poor Duke unmercifully. He ran around and around the cage trying to peck Duke through the cage bars and when I finally had enough of Bobby Lee’s aggravation, I let Duke out of the cage. I’ve been watching him all day and he’s not picking at his bandages. He kind of walks a little funny now, but I’m not sure the foot really hurts him as much as the big ol’ bandage annoys him.

If you look closely, you may be able to see Duke’s bandaged foot in this picture:

It was raining and I didn’t want to get my camera wet, so I had to rely on a zoom lens.

I’ll re-wrap Duke’s foot tonight and make sure it looks OK, and then check it in the morning again. I may have to repeat the procedure a couple of times to make sure all the “core” is out. Oh - and if anyone can send me the formula for figuring out how many CCs of Pen-G a 9 pound rooster needs and dosage info, I would really appreciate it.

And, finally, speaking of roosters, here is skinny little Bobby Lee enjoying his Reign of Terror:

And see the pullet in that picture with him? That’s one of Duke’s babies. She’s a White Faced Black Spanish mixed with Silver Gray Dorking. She is a HUGE girl - and definitely has Duke’s eyes, as well as his five toes. She’s from the hatch that we had about 4 months ago. I’ve had a hard time coming up with a name that suits her. Any suggestions?

Jethro is one of Duke’s boys from that same hatch. He’s a Silver Leghorn crossed with a Silver Gray Dorking. He is the spitting image of his father when Duke was that age.

And this is Pico - he’s a White Faced Black Spanish crossed with a Phoenix. Bobby Lee is his daddy:

And I’m going to stop there with the pictures of the boys. You should be very thankful. There are actually eight more cockerels out there now. Can you believe that? You would if you heard the crowing around here all day - every day!

I’m hoping my Chicken Ownership Resume doesn’t get much longer. I would be happy if the only thing on it said “Happy chicken owner. I know how to feed and water chickens. And I can feed them treats and scoop poop from the coop. The end.” Seriously. I mean who would ever actually APPLY for a job where knowledge of sticking fingers up chicken butts and cutting on chicken feet was required? If you answered “Me!” to that question - have I got a job for you!

Bee Free,
Penny

I let the two broody moms out of their brooder pens with their babies today. I really need to get them out of the brooders so I can put the next two new mamas in them. They are due to hatch their babies out Wednesday.

As usual, these two broody moms just can not get along. They immediately launched into a brawl. I sat out there with them for a while and separated them several times, and eventually Broody1 took her chicks into the chicken run and things seemed to settle. Before too long, Broody2 had her chicks in the run as well. Everyone seems to be getting along just fine now - even if the two broody moms both now have bruised eyes.

Against my wishes, Broody1 has already taken her chicks into the woods, next to the coop. I really worry about them being out there, but they don’t pay any attention to what I want.

They are still all in the woods as I type this. Broody2 has her chicks in the chicken run.

Even though the chicken coop is right next to the woods, the sun shines on it all day long. I normally don’t worry too much about that. In the winter, the sun heats the coop nicely. And in the summer, the chickens spend most of their time in the woods - or under Bernie’s pole barn next to his barn shed. That’s a constant source of annoyance for Bernie, by the way. But it makes the chickens happy, and happy chickens makes me happy, so Bernie doesn’t complain too much. Even if they have scratched out holes the size of the grand canyon under his boat, behind his tractors, and around each support pole to dust bathe in.

At any rate, with broodies living in the coop right now, and new babies staying in there as well, I started getting a little concerned about the sun beating right on the coop all day and raising the temperature inside the chicken coop. I decided to tarp over the shrimp net I have covering the chicken run. Not only would that shade the coop a great deal, but it would keep the chicken run from getting so muddy in the rain. So this morning, Bernie helped me secure the tarp over the shrimp net. It now looks like the Big Top Circus resides in our yard.

I know it looks awful - but the coop and chicken yard are mostly shaded all day long now. The chickens seem to like it. Bernie seems to hate it. And I can overlook it since it makes my chickens more comfortable. We’ll take it down in late fall so that the coop will get sun in colder weather and the weight of the ice and snow doesn’t pull the shrimp net and tarp down.

Something I meant to mention earlier about this last hatch is that four of the eggs I put under the broodies were eggs I had stored in the refrigerator from 1 - 3 days before hand. I had heard that refrigerated, fertile eggs will hatch out just fine, and I wanted to experiment with it myself. So I opened one of the egg cartons in the refrigerator, randomly pulled out four eggs, marked them with a different colored pen than the other eggs I gave the broodies, and then put the refrigerated eggs under those broodies. And guess what? All four of those refrigerated eggs hatched just fine. I share this with you in case you have chickens and happen to lose a favorite hen. If you recognize her eggs and have some in the refrigerator, you can take them from the refrigerator and put them under a broody or in an incubator and hatch out her offspring. Be sure to bring the eggs to room temperature before placing them under a broody or in the bator. Otherwise moisture can collect on the inside of the egg and possibly mess up the hatch.

Bobby Lee is still enjoying his Reign of Terror. He really torments Duke something fierce. In all fairness, Duke used to really torment Bobby Lee though. I guess Bobby Lee figures turn about is fair play. None the less, Duke still participates in keeping the flock in line, much to Bobby Lee’s consternation. Pico regularly tries to get frisky with the older hens, and Duke just will not stand by and watch that happen. Neither will Duke allow the hens to fight. While Bobby Lee does seem to be extremely alert and watchful over the girls, he can not, quite frankly, hold a candle to Duke. Maybe he’ll grow into the role.

Bobby Lee is such a good looking boy.

And Duke still has his rugged handsomeness.

It occurs to me that it is a bit like a circus around here with all these crazy chickens. Maybe naming the tarped over chicken run The Big Top isn’t such a bad idea.

Bee Free

As I’ve mentioned in the past, Bernie and I are pack rats and rarely throw anything away. Sometimes this works in our favor. A few days ago I mentioned to Bernie that it would be nice to have a few benches in the yard. Just a few places where we could sit in the shade and enjoy the day. His face lit up as he remembered a pile of old lumber he had stored from over twenty years ago. And within a few minutes, we had two of these in the yard.

He pulled out some logs from the pile he had cut out of trees that fell around here and nailed a piece of treated, near petrified, wood on the top of a couple of them for the seat. I just love these benches.

After being penned in the run for a full week, my poor chickens were begging to get out and free range. It had been several days since we had seen any sign of chicken hawks, so a few days ago, I began free ranging the chickens again. So far, so good.

Friday morning we had an insurance agent stop by with papers for us to sign. I did not give a thought to the chickens being out in the yard, until Mr. Insurance got ready to leave. I stepped out on the porch as he was leaving, and spotted Duke, way up on the hill - at the exact moment that Duke spotted Mr. Insurance. I didn’t like the look on Duke’s face.

As Mr. Insurance opened his car door, Duke was heading toward him. “That’s a big chicken right there”, Mr. Insurance commented, resting one arm on the opened car door, and one on the roof of his car.

“Yes, he is. Well you have a good day.” I told him. I was praying he would leave before Duke got to him.

Duke was within 20 feet at this point, and now he was going sideways toward Mr. Insurance.

Mr. Insurance excitedly exclaimed “Ah, look at that! He wants to go home with me! Don’t you boy? Do you want to go home with me? Yes, you do! You sure do! ”

I did not have the heart to tell Mr. Insurance that what Duke really wanted to do was pen him to the ground and peck his eyes out. Instead, I quickly got between him and Duke and said “Um, you better get on outta here now.”

Mr. Insurance chuckled and as he got into the car and was closing his door, he said “Ah, big boy. You can’t go home with me. You big boy, you.”

Duke was glaring at Mr. Insurance and clearly annoyed that I had prevented him from teaching Mr. Insurance a thing or two about how much he wanted to go home with him.

As Mr. Insurance drove off, smiling and waving at Duke, Duke beat his wings furiously and let out a few crows I’m certain they heard in the next county.

Duke is not a mean rooster. But, as spring gears up, he is a rooster that is full of testosterone, and he is a rooster that is on edge from all the recent hawk activity. For the foreseeable future, I will be certain Duke is penned up when we expect visitors.

Those of you with protective roosters will understand Duke’s attitude and behavior. Those of you without, well….. just let me say that if you see a rooster coming at you sideways, going home with you is likely the furthest thing from his little pea brain. And, unless you want to get up close and personal with an angry roo, it’s probably best not to baby talk him. You really may want to get on outta there.

The chicks are getting so big. Look at this one’s size next to mama.

I suppose we’ll soon know if we have any cockerels in the mix. I’m still calling each of them “she”, but this Duke looking thing has me worried.

Get a load of these Duke feet!

The gray legs on this one tell me this is a Phoenix mix - perhaps even a full bred.

I love my Phoenix chickens. The pullets are pretty, sweet little girls, and they are good layers. The Phoenix cockerel is absolutely beautiful, with a sweet disposition. I think Bobby Lee is a fine specimen.

Phoenix roosters are small and, in nature, size matters. Bobby Lee is second in command to Duke. And, while Bobby Lee is very attentive to the girls, he clearly understands the limitations his size inflicts on him. When there is danger, Duke is the one that will stand to challenge it. Bobby Lee is the one that will herd all the girls to safety - and stay there until Duke let’s him know the coast is clear.

I do love my roosters. And their body language tells me they have no interest in leaving me - at least not to go home with an insurance agent.

Bee Free,
Penny

I had a little surprise waiting for me when I went to check for eggs today.

Just look at that cute little thing! I have no idea who laid it. I’ve heard that new layers will sometimes lay itty bitty eggs, but this is the first one I’ve ever found that small. Many people call them wind eggs - and a few other adjectives for passing gas. I think that’s just way too crude for such a cute little thing. I’m just calling it a Small Fry. I understand these tiny eggs typically have no yolk. I’ll let y’all know about that when we crack it open.

We’ve also started getting large eggs.

We don’t get them very often, but it’s always a nice surprise. We usually get small to medium eggs, and I’ve got no complaints about that - it’s just fun to find something different every now and again.

A couple of the hens now have completely bald patches on their backs from Duke’s affections. I’ve read about chicken saddles, but never really gave them much thought. After seeing all the damage Duke is inflicting, I’ve changed my mind and decided to make one and see if it works. A chicken saddle is simply something that fits over the hen’s back to protect it from the rooster’s spurs. To start, I’ve decided to make one for the White Faced Black Spanish that Duke is particularly fond of. Her back is pretty bad. I’m almost finished with it and plan to put it on her tonight. She’s my test case to see if this will really help. If it does, we are going to have a bunch of stylin’ chics around here.

In the next couple of days, I’ll post instructions for making the chicken saddle, pictures of a hen wearing it, and the results. If all goes well, we’ll just have a little Chicken Saddle Fashion Show. Keep your fingers crossed……

Bee Free,
Penny

I had planned to take the pups out to romp in the woods this afternoon and take a few pictures of them. But it’s snowing and cold right now, so I settled for snapping a few shots of them in the house. I have to tell you, that was not easy. Getting on the floor around here results in being bombarded in puppies. I did manage to get a few shots of them when they didn’t have their faces right in the camera.

Everything is a chew toy to them - especially to Dolly.

Diesel likes to chew on Dolly best of all.

And I included this last picture so you can see Diesel’s eyes - they are really pretty, and depending on the lighting they can be blue, green, or hazel. Mostly their just adorable though and this picture doesn’t do them justice.

Last night the pups slept all night long. Unfortunately, we didn’t sleep much at all because we woke up every hour on the hour thinking “They’re going to want to go out any moment now.” When we got up at 5:30AM we had to wake them up to go outside and potty. They are really doing great with the potty training. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that sleeping through the night wasn’t just a fluke.

Just a quick update on Duke’s frostbitten comb - the smaller back points have fallen off and that portion looks extremely healthy right now. He still has three larger points that are black, and they look to me as if they will fall off very shortly. But don’t feel bad for Duke. He has a heaping pile of self confidence and isn’t even slightly fazed that his comb is messed up, or that he has black backhoe grease all down his neck, or that his tail feathers look funky. Duke is nothing, if not self confident.

You may remember that I’ve mentioned I thought six of my hens were in molt. Well, I talked to my cousin Julie (who has had chickens forever) and then emailed her some pictures of them, and she informed me that my hens are not molting. They have “rooster tracks”. In other words, my roosters are pulling/ripping their feathers out during mating. It really breaks my heart. My little Phoenix hens are bald as apples right now. They all look just awful. After talking with Julie and reading her email, it doesn’t sound like there’s much I can do about. I can trim the roosters’ spurs so they are not so rough on the girls’ backs, and I probably will, but it won’t help with the bald heads. If chickens are in your future and you plan to get roosters, you may be interested in learning with me. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

It’s snowing like crazy right now. The chickens are in their coop, the puppies are sleeping like babies, the cats are still pouting, the woodstove is pumping out heat like crazy, and Bernie and I are happy to be living here on our homestead.

Bee Free,
Penny

My sister and I have always been close and while we have a great deal in common, we differ greatly in others. Take organization, pack-rattiness (I may have made that word up), and clutter management for example. My sister’s home is very organized and clear of clutter. She doesn’t have a pack rat gene in her body. If she hasn’t used it, worn it, or eaten it recently, it gets thrown out. She has begged - and I seriously mean BEGGED - to come into our home to organize and de-clutter it. It just slays her that we will not permit it. Her eye begins twitching when she visits us and gazes upon the mass of clutter in our home. We are very attached to our clutter and we’ve accumulated boxes and boxes of it that we store in every nook and cranny of our home. You just never know when you’ll need that t-shirt from high school or when that broken toaster will come in handy.

I tell you the above to explain how very happy I was to find a box full of dog food bowls, waterers, leashes and collars. When the last of our dogs passed away a few years ago we didn’t plan to get puppies anytime soon, but we knew we eventually would, so I packed everything dog related into a box and stored it. Finding the box was a-whole-nother story, but find it I did! And after washing it all up, setting up the feeding area, and strategically placing the waterer, I believe we are prepared. The only thing missing is the puppies. And tomorrow that will be remedied. Yay!

So, in a nutshell, the clutter of that box of dog items and the pack-rattiness of saving it all these years actually aided in the organization we accomplished in setting up for the arrival of the puppies. So take that, sistah! Besides, it’s called “frugal”. We are just very frugal people around here.

With all the below freezing weather we’ve encountered this year, Duke’s comb has suffered significantly from frost bite. I’ve mentioned this before, but thought I would post a picture for those of you who may have never seen frost bite on a chicken’s comb.

The front of his comb is unaffected. He’s still a good looking boy, don’t you think?

The rear of his comb has the frost bite. It’s mostly on the tips of his comb.

The dark stuff on his feathers is grease from the back hoe. When it rains, snows, sleets, etc. he prefers to go under the back hoe for shelter, rather than in his coop. I’ve tried explaining how the coop would be better, but he doesn’t listen. Boys will be boys.

I’ve been slathering a triple-antibiotic cream on his comb each evening and it was starting to look much better - but then we had another Arctic blast and the high temperatures didn’t get out of the 20’s for a while. His comb is looking rather bad again. I hate to think of it, but I may end up having to dub it.

Chickens with large combs and wattles are more susceptible to frost bite. Some people believe that applying Vaseline to the combs and wattles will prevent frost bite. I’m certain it won’t hurt, but I question it’s effectiveness. Believe it or not, this is actually a very controversial subject among many chicken owners. All I know is that the antibiotic cream I am using is petroleum based, and it did not prevent him from further frost bite. None the less, frost bite can be a very serious issue. The necrotic tissue can cause an infection, making the chicken very ill, and possibly even resulting in death. Dubbing is sometimes the only alternative. It involves cutting off the comb and/or wattle. Some people routinely dub their chickens as a preventative measure, and some with Show Chickens are required to dub them.

Personally, Duke and I are both very fond of his comb and wattle, so we are both hoping that dubbing is something neither of us has to experience. His wattles are fine, so that won’t be an issue. I’m keeping a very close eye on his comb for any sign of infection. At the most, I am hoping I only need to remove the affected portion, which is close to the back of his comb. I guess we’ll cross that bridge if we get to it. If the frost bite doesn’t get too severe and there is no infection, he will likely lose the black tips. They will just fall off when completely dead. That is what Duke and I are hoping happens.

Tomorrow is the big day! We will leave early in the morning to pick up the puppies. I’ve tried my best to prepare Elvis and Priscilla, but they are in a state of complete denial. They refuse to even discuss it. But they are fairly adaptive cats, so I guess they’ll learn to deal with it when the puppies finally get here.

And if you thought I bored you with peep pictures when we got the chickens, well……..

Bee Free,
Penny