I do not have to put on heavy cowboy/work clothes today. In my world, right now, that is something to celebrate.

I am also celebrating that Oreo crowed!!! Those of you who have been following the Chicken TV saga know that in March we bought 28 baby chicks. When they are tiny fluffballs, that doesn’t seem like a large number, but as they get bigger and start outgrowing the handy steel water trough in the saddle shed, well… 28 is a lot.

My co-worker and friend, Saint Randy, built me the most amazing chicken tractor EVER. Due to the fact that we are in the middle of the nation forest, any domestic fowl must be protected from predators: skunks, racoons, bobcats, coyotes, bears, foxes, eagles, owls, mountain lions. My chicken tractor is solar powered and solar protected and just awesome. Four of the baby chicks were (accidentally) a meat breed. If you don’t want to say ick every time you see a rotisserie chicken, don’t familiarize yourself with Cornish Rocks, ready to butcher by 8 or 9 weeks old. They get so big, so fast, that they can’t stand up. Just ick. The growth rate is obscene.

We had to butcher.

I am a meat eater who loves cows, but ick.

Anyway, that took us down to 24 chickens.

4 Cinnamon Queens

4 Isa Browns

10 Leghorns

6 Turkens (Naked-Neck chickens)

If you don’t want to fall in love with a creature who is so ugly she is cute, don’t get Turkens. They remind me of the singing vultures in Jungle Book (so watcha wanna do?).

However, sexing baby chicks is inexact. Seems that one of the Isa Brown hens… is not. He is black and white, bigger than the rest (though not obscene), with a bigger wattle and comb.

And yesterday, when the guys were honking the horn and feeding cows, he joined in.

He crowed.

Oreo crowed.

What are you celebrating today?