The Krause/Brashears have moved to Amherst leaving their flock of six with the Ballengers. The first thing you need to know about this family is that they have some major cool going on. Betsy, as you will remember, treated me to a glass of wine on her birthday. Chris is a musician as is their daughter Hollis. Their son, Luca, increased my son’s hep factor by making it okay to say “dude” in a context that didn’t include cattle. Their flock is no less cool.

Introductions
All the hens came with names, which we will honor, but Sailor Moon will just have to be Big Momma to me. She is soft and lovely and at the top of the pecking order near as I can tell. Don’t think that the bantams can’t rise up against the bigger hens. Fireball or Flower, I’m still getting to know those two, hen pecked Daisy over some watermelon today. The other members of the flock are Persephone and Buttercup.

Sweet Digs
Jesse and the kiddos worked together to build an awesome coop with two roosts, four nests, and a slanted roof that will shed rain water onto our water hungry citrus tree. You’ll notice the tin can flowers made with Anna then given to and stolen from Molly. Also, there’s a 1919 license plate over the door. I expect we will continue to decorate and modify our coop. For now, the chicks dig it.

Our Pets Make us Breakfast
The chickens aren’t always in their coop. They like to free range, just like the rest of us. I so appreciate their work de-bugging the backyard. On the other hand, their first day out they ate our prized black Russian tomato that George and I have been carefully tending. It was our only one and there are no flowers promising any future blacks. Even so, I love these ladies. They have produced well for us – especially considering how our family, and Parrish in particular, loves to snuggle. Our first egg was this green one.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a better tasting egg than the ones coming from our flock. Yum, yum, yumm-o! Thanks to the Krause/Brashear family.