Yesterday was a tough day.
It began at 5:50am, when China started squawking with the rise of the sun. I went outside for the usual morning routine: toss some scratch in the grass, make myself a coffee, and spend the next while trying to keep her din to a dull roar.
China's a morning person. She wakes up with the sun, and then chatters about it for a couple hours. This would be fine on a farm. Not so fine in suburbia, where I am sure my neighbors don't like to have her as their daily alarm clock.
Yesterday, I was outside with her for two hours. She just wouldn't quiet down. By then it was almost 8am, and I figured pretty much everyone would be waking up anyway, so I went back in the house.
This was not a sustainable plan. The sun would be rising early all summer, and I couldn't spend the next several months babysitting the chatty girl every morning, and worrying about getting a visit from Animal Control.
I went on the BackyardChickens forum, and saw that there was a meet-up that afternoon, less than an hour away. These meet-ups are where chicken owners and breeders get together to talk shop, admire each other's birds, and buy fertile eggs or chicks. I contacted the organizer and told her I was looking for a good home for a chatty leghorn, and she said to come on down. So William and I loaded the birds into the car and headed out to Norco.
To make a very long story much shorter, I will just conclude by saying China was a huge hit. She is truly a beautiful bird, and several people wanted to take her home. I finally gave her to a sweet girl named Sabrina, who has several chickens and a rooster. (China is loud, but compared to a rooster, she's a wallflower!) Sabrina is raising Lavender Orpington chicks right now, so we may visit later on this summer and take home one of her girls. Here she is:
And to keep Snow Angel from being lonely, we took home a 4-month-old Black Orpington. She is sweet and docile, and so pretty. The breeder had four of them, so William and I picked them up and played with them a bit to see which one had the best personality. Turns out we have champagne taste -- we chose the most expensive bird. But it just so happened that the nicest bird also happened to be the prettiest. Her feathers shine bottle green in the light, and she has a couple white patches on her wings. We named her Mint Oreo.
Snow Angel is intent on showing her who's boss, but hopefully they'll get the relationship worked out soon.
William was a trooper. They are pretty much his birds, and he is so attached to them, but he understood the situation. And he loved seeing all the different chickens and choosing a new one. I was proud of him.
And I heard this morning that China is doing well in her new home. We miss her, but we can be happy knowing we raised her from a three-day old chick to a beautiful laying hen. We gave her a good start and a great upbringing, and now we're all onto a new phase.
And this morning started off so peacefully. Aside from keeping Snow Angel from pecking Mint Oreo's eyes out, it's been lovely.
