Tupping time (the boys are back in town)

So yesterday was the big day.  The rams went back in with the ewes.  Jack escorted the gents — Newman, Handsome Dude and  Mac —to the ladies in the pasture.  By this time of year, the rams have put on a bit of extra weight so the ewes easily outrun them up the hillsides.  By the end of the first day , the three rams were huddled together.  Trying to devise a better strategy no doubt. Most of the day, my farm help and I spent laughing.  Poor boys!  There's lots of ladies and lots of hillsides on the ranch.

Happy Hens Farm newest arrivals

The other morning, I noticed Nellie, one of the Red Jungle Fowl chickens, pacing oddly around a mound of composted soil near the barn.  I walked over only to discover eight chicks marching out from under a loose tarp!  I moved Nellie and her brood to a private suite where they can be safe from curious barn cats (and the skunk).  Given the "crowd" Nellie runs with, the papa is Red, a very striking Ameracauna rooster.