Meet the Flock, part 10 January 10, 2008
Posted by Laura in Family, Farm.trackback
Josephine
In the last installment, I introduced Napoleon. Here, most definitely, is his better half. Meet Josie.
Josie is also a Mille Fleur bantam. Like Nappy, she has buff yellow feathers (though hers are of a softer shade) with black and white speckles. She has cute little cheek puffs that give her a chipmunk-like appearance. On top of that, she has built-in feather snowshoes, should she ever need them. I’ve tried hard to get a good picture of her feet, but she must be self-conscious about how big they look- she won’t hold still. Extending down her legs and fanning out over her toes are long curved feathers. When she runs, they give the impression of big galoshes, though she is very graceful.
In every way that Nappy is full of himself, Josie is meek and humble. She is easily chased away from food and never challenges even the chicks.
Two springs ago, she set a small clutch of eggs and hatched out 3 chicks. She was a very good mother, but something (a chicken snake, we think) got all but one of her babies. Before long, her wee babe had outgrown her.
Josie is quite a little lady and far too good for Nappy in our opinion. Maybe this spring, we’ll get her another beau.
She is a pretty bird.