UPDATE: The winner is…Joy Boutwell!
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It’s finally Spring here in Central Arkansas. And with Spring, we have new animals here on “the farm.” With the egg prices soaring, we decided to take the plunge. Keep in mind, we already have quite a menagerie of animals: 9 dogs, 4 cats, 1 betta fish (my Loki!), 3 goats, and 1 35-year-old horse. *Eeks. I forgot about our rabbit, Oreo!* Now, we have a ton of chickens.

Our first batch of 14 chickens are teenagers now. This week, we got 7 new baby chicks, and my dd had some fun with photos. They represent a bunch of different breeds because we love the variety of colored eggs they’ll produce. These eggs aren’t real, of course.

They are adorable, right? But my dd and SIL had to do quite a bit of work to get chicken house ready for them. We had an old unused tin shed they cleaned out and built a box for the babies with a light above it to keep them at the proper temperature until they grow their feathers. We have nesting boxes ready. In the meantime, my dd, the 14-year-old, and the 9-year-old are the “bird masters,” and they constantly clean up after them and check them several times a day—and play with them. (Here are Jesus & Alana! Jesus is my granddaughter’s boyfriend’s name.)

They assure me they have distinct personalities. And they have names. (I don’t know all the names.) Below is one of the teenagers from the first batch. This one’s named Barbara.

And another. They’re not pretty at this age, but they will be!

In a week or so, they’ll be adding guinea hens–not for eggs, but because they’re great “guard dogs”—they SCREAM when they’re upset, so hopefully, they’ll alert us if critters get into the pen.

I have one more picture to share—the cutest she took—but you have to solve the puzzle to see it!

So, solve the puzzle and tell me whether you’ve ever raised chickens or any other kind of farm animal. And let me know what you think of her photos for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!