Funky Chicken

So, this has been an unspeakably hard year for poultry down on the lo Wheel Revolution Homestead, chickens, quail and ducks have been killed by predators, died under mysterious circumstances, and been abducted by aliens (ok, that last one is only a theory, but it is the most plausible we have been able to come up with)
All this lead to our having one lone duck, who in her desperate and lonely state, had taken to quacking, insensately, at unimaginably high decibels That bird has lungs! We are not allowed roosters in this neck of the woods, owing to noise concerns, but this duck is louder than any roster I have ever heard. When I realized that She could be heard more than a block away, I knew I had to do something: she needed a friend -STAT!! So I started looking for a poultry buddy for her

Winter is not the best time of year to add to one's flock: chicks are born in spring, by November it is slim pickins, especially if you want a young bird (a spring chicken, if you will) with a long life of egg laying yet ahead of her. I found people looking for homes for old chickens that were no longer laying, rosters, large aggressive geese, etc.

I had almost given up when the Boy and I made a stop at the Feed Store and saw the bird we now know as Henrietta C. Waldo. She is, infact a spring chicken, hand raised so she is very tame and easy to handle, and she is a variety of Banty (I just love Bantams), a very -um- (don't tell her I said this) strange variety of Banty.

So, it is to early for eggs, and too soon to know if we will ever get over chuckling when we see her, but what I do know is that the neighborhood was able to sleep in this Sunday morning, rather than awaking to the sounds of a frantic duck, and we are all gretful for that