Quad L Farm and Homeschool: More Feathers for the Farm

Wow, it has been a while since my last post. Life around the Quad L has been rather busy with more canning, gardening, and lots of prep for school, Grandma's visit, and Chicken Girl's upcoming birthday party.

Saturdays are usually the day we all like to sleep in, after we let the chickens out of course. However, this past Saturday was August 4th, which is the first Saturday of the month. That meant it was time for the TSC Animal Swap. Oh yeah!! Lydia and I were up early so we could go chicken shopping. :) We dressed hurriedly, grabbed our purses, a kennel from the barn, and we were off. While most girls like going to the mall and shopping for new clothes or shoes, we like going to the parking lot of our local TSC and shopping for chickens. Sometimes, we get to see some very interesting animals and it is always fun talking with the folks about the critters they bring. We were hoping to find our turkey, Gobble Gobble, a friend but we had no such luck. No one brought turkeys this month. After cage shopping, that is sort of like window shopping, we spotted a little Americana that reminded Lydia of one of our chickens we had to leave in TX. Welcome to our family little Nightingale!

Nightingale

As we were getting ready to leave and find us some donuts since we hadn't taken the time to have breakfast, Chicken Girl spotted a new arrival. There they were. Heads held high, looking all proud, three beautiful laying hens. They were Colonial Rock Crosses. Laying hens can be rather pricey, usually $15-$25 a bird, and these girls were exquisite. I was afraid to ask how much. The owners were a dad and young daughter about Lydia's age. Without hesitation, Lydia walked right up and asked, "How much for these girls?" Much to our surprise, the dad said, "$6 a piece or $15 for all three." What?! Really?! He went on to tell us that they had just purchased some show birds at the Fair and needed more space. Rather than make big $$s, he was just hoping to find them a good, new home, preferably where they would not become food on the table. Lydia and I looked at each other and said, "I think you have found that home". Happy with our four finds of the day, we headed towards home and the donut shop.

On the drive home, we started discussing names for our three big girls. That didn't take long. We had just completed an audio book, Love, Ruby Lavender. There were three rescued hens in this story and their names were, Bemmie, Bess, and Ivy. Now, we had our very own B, B, and I.