Betsy on the Nest

 

Sketching Betsy on the community nest - all of our hens lay their eggs in one nest each day!!  She's one of our sweetest chickens, one of two calico princesses we have.  I don't know if all chickens do this, but ours have fun the very beginning.  Only three times has an egg missed the family plot. Two were randomly in the henhouse and one in the middle of the run!  Both of the times they were in the henhouse, the nest was fill off 7 eggs already. And if one of the hens is still on that nest, they don't mind at all when I reach underneath them to pull each egg out. I'm so happy we started on this chicken adventure. Painting number 4784 in 4784 days. 

Meringue Sketch

 

This sweet little Calico Princess wishes you all a Happy New Year!  

Weaving her Nest

 The second day's prompt from Inktober is "weave", so I'm sketching Betsy on the best, which she's woven for herself.  We have 11 chickens, and they all Leo in the same nest, until today!  Five eggs ended up in this nest, and two on the nest farthest from this one! It's the first time we've gotten 7 eggs in one day! So exciting!  And Betsy is a favorite, who is the first to jump on my lap, and loves being showered with attention!  She's a Calico Princess - and she certainly lives up to the name!  I plan to fill 31 pages of this new sketch book with Inktober prompts involving my chickens!  Painting number 4648 in 4648 days. 

On the Run

 

Today, I am painting sweet Meringue, who is our lighter Calico Princess.  She is very well mannered, sweet and docile.  She only takes treats when no one else is near, and gentle in the taking. It's only a matter of time before one of the other girls jumps up on my easel!  Beans is especially spicy as she checks out my ungloved fingers - looking for a treat!  More than once I had to deflect her advances as I painted. I may need to paint outside the run next time!  Painting number 4615 in 4615 days. 

Gossip Girls

I love seeing how my little chicks are maturing!  Those sweet little peepers have grown up voices now - and they love to converse with each other and me!  Painting in the run with them may prove harder than I thought, as Beans is getting pretty spicy with my paper!  She keeps pecking at it, and at some point she'll break right through it!  Painting number 4609 in 4609 days.