is it a girl or boy?

When I shoot the garden from this angle, it looks like lush green vegetation growing….dinner every night from our backyard.

The truth is I have 4 buckets with lettuce, spinach and onions and one big bed of strawberries. The rest of the garden – all those raised beds – sunflowers and zinnias. We have a lot of travel plans coming up and the garden just isn’t happening. Soon though I’ll have “Mammoth” sunflowers and zinnias  – it will be pretty and I guess technically it will be edible. Sunflower seeds don’t go far in feeding a family though. In other news, when we do planet food in our garden again it will grow great from all that chicken compost!

We have had a total of 22 chickens now. We lost 4…and not “lost” like we can’t find them. So far we’ve yet to have a single rooster. I’ve been convinced before that we have had a rooster and then the rooster started laying eggs. I am convinced again that the gray chicken above is a guy not a girl. There are no spurs and no cock-a-doodle-dooing, but it just looks like a rooster. Right? Compared to others its age of the same breed, the comb and wattle are so much bigger.  I examine the feathers daily, but I’ve been wrong many times before. What do you chicken experts think? Do I have a rooster? He/she is about 12 weeks old, blue copper maran.

We are still really enjoy our chickens. Whenever friends come over there is one random fact that always surprises people – our eggs will never turn into chickens since we don’t have a rooster. For some of you that is common knowledge – for others of you, there is your farming science lesson for the day. Your hen can lay eggs, but if there isn’t a rooster those eggs won’t turn into baby chicks.

Yesterday a deep, heartfelt post. Today roosters and eggs. Keeping you on your toes around here 🙂

Happy Friday!