So I chose not to do house work and try to get some decent pics. The pics didn't turn out well but I went ahead and posted the best one I could get of Claude's birds on the photo page. They're still nervous so i wasn't going to push them to pose.

Now for the dwarf. Dang that girl is a trip. I have a stunning blue cockeral somewhere around 4 months old. Problem is that every bird in the coop hates him, except for his mother. He's a whiner, scared of everything. I've tried moving him to new quarters with other chicks, that was a complete and utter failure.

That sets the stage for the Dwarf and the little cockeral event. I was doing work in the coop, I had Dwarf, Crook Neck and the cockeral out roaming and exploring. Dwarf was at the far end with Crook Neck exploring. Dwarf's agenda is to steal anything Crook Neck finds that's good. The cockeral was down at the other end near my feet, whining. Suddenly the Dwarf spots him and comes running at him. He screams and runs behind the feed to hide. Dwarf was very pleased with herself, decided she did all she could do and ran back to the Crook Neck. The very moment the cockeral came back out she charged back and chased him back behind the feed container again. Once he was completely out of sight she ran back to the far end of the coop.

This pattern repeated itself several times before I quit laughing myself silly and scooped him up, put him with his broody Momma and left still laughing.

I'm fairly certain he's sold. He's a really stunning little boy but if the flock doesn't like him there's no sense in his staying here.

And yes, I will begin shipping. My fist adventure in to it went well so even though I was close to tear at the PO when I shipped the boys I've decided its OK. I will be signing up for PayPal in the morning so will be able to accept that form of payment also. Its taken a while for me to get with the program but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

I have a friend named Cathryn. She and I developed our friendship out of conflict. In talking on the phone and sharing emails back & forth we've learned about each other's breeding programs. I told her I had two light gray roosters in one of our conversations. You would think that I told her I had a room full of gold. I really didn't have a need for them in my breeding program, plus I still have the parents so we decided to swap birds. Of course the weather didn't co-operate so shipping kept being delayed. Well, the first week of January we grabbed the chance to ship.

I packaged my two boys up and shipped them off to her. The crazy, kind, generous woman sent me two pairs of birds. A gray cockeral and pullet and a black Claude McCallister pullet and cockeral.

I don't know how many of you are aware that Claude has serious health issues and has been forced to reduce his flock to nearly nothing. His illness is progressing rapidly which was making it impossible for him to care for his charges. Cathryn went to his home and picked up all that she could with the promise that she would find them forever homes or keep them herself. I'm one of those lucky recipients to get the priviledge to give a pair of his birds a home where they will be fussed over and cared for the rest of their lives. Its taken them some time to settle after relocating twice in such a short period of time but every day I see that they are more and more at home here in TN. As soon as I can I'll get pics up of my new babies.

Now, the grays. I love the cockeral, he has the sweetest most distinctive crow. He crowed all the way back from the city when I picked them up. Even though he and the pullet did not know each other before the trip its obvious they have bonded. The little girl has continued to lay since the second day she arrived. I consider that quite amazing. I've never bred grays before so am anxious to see what their peeps will look like. I have one other gray pullet, a result of my silver gene whites, that after she's done taking care of chicks I will put in with them.

I've got an incubator full of black, blue and splash babies. Hatch day is right around the corner. These are test chicks for all my new pairings. Most, if not all, are already sold. And three of my girls are setting on eggs of the same colors in the coop. Fingers crossed that all of these peeps turn out to be gorgeous peeps.

In my next update I'll fill you all in on the Dwarf's latest antics. She had me laughing so hard tears were streaming. That little girl can cerainly keep me laughing.