Not Soup Joins, and Takes His Lumps

The pumpkin was the day's centerpiece. From midday on, the flock worked steadily at a halved pumpkin on the woodchip bedding — a white hen, a golden-brown rooster with grey wing feathers, a barred hen, a glossy black bird with a red wattle, a grey speckled hen, all of them coming to the same spot in turn. By afternoon a cucumber and squash had joined the pumpkin, and the birds were still at it past seven in the evening.

The day's real addition: a new rooster named Not Soup, brought over from Julia's place, now logged on the flock roster with a portrait up on the farm site. He has no leg band yet. He spent much of the day perched up on a fence post, keeping his distance — every other rooster has been working him over to establish that he sits at the bottom of the pecking order. No injury, no missing feathers; just the usual settling-in, which should take a few weeks.

The turkeys were their usual selves — following underfoot all morning, and the Bronze tom taking food politely from the hand.

-Bubba