Meet My New Flock

Nine 4-week-old buff orpington pullets, six 4-week-old barred rock pullets, six 4-week-old rhode island red pullets, three 7 1/2-week-old rhode island red cockerels, and three 2-weekish-old rhode island red cockerels(we think). And by God's grace, they are living together under one roof in harmony.

What's that? Why the purple stripes? Did someone breed your chickens from parrots? No, no. It looks like it though. Around the three-week mark, the barred rocks and rhode island reds started picking on the buff orpingtons as their little feathers started being kind of pokey-outy (yes, that's a technical term). So, after rescuing 7 out of 9 tiny yellow birds from the cannibalism of their flock-mates, i decided to go ahead and spray the blue wound-kote product on all of their necks and tail-feathers for prevention. It worked too.

I think they like me. What do you think?


The flock is currently housed in this wonderful (i really love the design) outdoor brooder that my husband built out of a crate he got from work. It's huge, and he put it on legs, so it's easy access to clean and feed and check and whatnot. I'm really enjoying it.

Anyway, when i open the little door in the front to take care of business, this happens:




Initially, i thought i was going to have to house the three age groups separately for a while to keep them safe. But after some thought, experimentation, and prayerful consideration, i was able to combine all three groups. The littlest ones, who i was most concerned about, are the least bothered of anyone. The barred rock pullets, for some reason i can't figure out, think it's cool to peck the the big cockerels in the eye, but the big boys defend themselves pretty well, and so far, no blood.





Here is one of my favorite pictures. The tiniest, youngest of them all...i guess he was too short to catch that sunbeam on his own, so he jumped on someone's back and took a nap.


Here's the same one again, learning the ropes from Big Red:



Aahh, harmony!

lying and truthfulness

A discussion on another blog some months ago got me thinking about what God thinks about lying. It has always puzzled me a bit that Rahab, the harlot, lied to the guards for the Hebrew spies, and this was counted to her as righteousness - indirectly i think.

Other examples come to mind of people throughout history, known for their integrity and often Christians, who we think must have lied. For example, the Quakers in colonial times who smuggled and hid escaped slaves and the people who hid Jews from the Nazis.

If a Nazi guard asked me if i knew of the location of any Jews, and i had 25 hiding in my attic, but i told the guard that i knew nothing, did God count that as sin?

Anyway, this got me looking. And so i asked my parents, who did a little research for me in their wonderful study books. And they found some interesting information. As you may know, the Hebrew language is very complex, so when the Hebrew text is translated to English, scholars have the difficult task of trying to transform very complex Hebrew words into the much more limited English language. And they end up using many different English words in different instances. So sometimes, knowing what all of those words are can help us understand the depth of the meaning of the Hebrew word.

Here is one definition (i'm sorry i don't know the source right now):

3584 כָּחַשׁ [kachash /kaw·khash/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 975; GK 3950; 22 occurrences; AV translates as “lie” five times, “submit” three times, “deny” three times, “fail” three times, “denied” twice, “belied” once, “deceive” once, “dissembled” once, “deal falsely” once, “liars” once, and “submitted” once. 1 to deceive, lie, fail, grow lean, be disappointing, be untrue, be insufficient, be found liars, belie, deny, dissemble, deal falsely. 1a (Qal) to become lean. 1b (Niphal) to cringe, feign obedience. 1c (Piel). 1c1 to deceive, deny falsely. 1c2 to act deceptively. 1c3 to cringe. 1c4 to disappoint, fail. 1d (Hithpael) to cringe, feign obedience.

A lot of these are to be expected, but a couple really threw me: to "be disappointing," to "be insufficient," to "feign obedience."

Being disappointing...there's a wide scope! To be insufficient....we're never sufficient! That's the whole reason we need Jesus. So what is God saying when He requires that we be not liars?

I have to remember that it's the combination of all of this that will bring me to some truth, and then i start to realize the theme: INTEGRITY. That's not the whole of it, of course, but it's a lot! A total scope of my life's fabric. To not be a liar is to be someone who is true, the whole person, who is made up of what is true, in word, in deed, in quality of workmanship, in desire. Sounds like perfection, doesn't it? Jesus actually told us to be "perfect." Here's another scripture that deserves some additional study to learn that "perfect," as it is used biblically, means "complete." Since we have all sinned and fall short of God's glory, but Jesus paid the debt for our sin, then we can know that we can be complete, perfect, true, because of Him.

Truth, then, is to be completely yielded to Jesus, to be transparent, and dependent, on Him, Who is, THE Truth.

That brings to mind one more thing. Corrie ten Boom, a woman whose family hid Jews from the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, relates that the secret hiding place was accessed through a trap door underneath the kitchen table. And one day, when the Gestapo came to their home, Corrie's sister told them (because she believed it was a sin to lie) that the people they were looking for were "under the table." But God saved them because the officers thought she must be a little crazy in the head, and they left without looking.

God has all kinds of ways of being sufficient for us when we do our best to honor Him and His word, and couple that with depending on Him for the outcome.

Good reasons for blogging

I haven't blogged in a while. After the great excitement of finally having a chicken grow old enough to lay eggs, said beautiful chicken was abducted by some wild predator and made to be a short and unkind dinner.

The finality of that sort of thing, specifically after all the grand trouble we had trying to keep our six chickens alive and healthy (and our ignorance and ill-preparation causing much of the problem), the final defeat of it made me sad. I suppose it didn't make me sad, exactly. But i was, nonetheless, sad in response to this defeat.

I don't like to write so much when i'm sad. I guess i'm just not a share-your-sadness-with-the-world kind of person, or maybe i'm too prideful to let you know i'm sad until it's over. I don't apologize for being sad, really. I think acknowledgement of loss and a time of sadness is appropriate and healthy. I just don't really want to write home about it (or anywhere else).

Today, i am happy.

Today, after weeks of sadness and a bit of moping, i have arrived home, by the grace of God's blessings and love, with 21 new 9-day-old chicks and a 4 month old German Shepherd mix puppy named Jelly.

Here's a little video of the new chicks in their temporary brooder (the tool box from our truck and some window screen over scrap wood). They sure are noisy! I have 9 Buff Orpingtons, 6 Rhode Island Reds, and 6 Barred Rocks.


This weekend we are expecting the hatching of two Rhode Island Red boys (possibly)by favor of her loveliness, the chicken lady, Eva, who will be added to our flock (the chickens, not Eva).

Also, in our travels today, we acquired Jelly.



Jelly had some car sickness during our travels (on me of course) and then immediately got into fire ants when we got home. But now Jelly and i have both had baths, Jelly has been introduced peacefully to Stanley (who's VERY suspicious) and to the chicks (which will take some more work), and she has successfully learned to sit, stay, and not jump on people, in the first hour and half of being here. We're very pleased. She is mild-mannered and smart, and we think she will be the perfect dog for us.

Her name is Jelly because she's really sweet.

This concludes our rejoicing for today. On the one year anniversary of our purchase of our home, it is full of noises and life again, and i am happy.