2010 Employee of the Year

Medium Girl, the 2010 Employee of the Year

Medium Girl, a nearly three year old Rhode Island Red hen, is the 2010 June’s Corner Garden Employee of the Year. It was a hard decision, as all the girls did good work in the garden, but Medium Girl stood out from the rest. When two of our other reds passed on last summer, Medium Girl held fast, keeping healthy, laying eggs, ferilizing the soil,and scratching for bugs and seeds. I even saw her eating slugs, a direct path to my heart. This winter, she is the only hen who is still laying eggs. All the others stopped laying in the fall, when they started molting. But there was no molting for Medium Girl. She persevered, giving us 4 to 5 eggs a week, with the same old feathers. Not bad for the winter.

Congratulations, Medium Girl!

As you might guess from the name, Medium Girl, Steven and I haven’t intentionally named our chickens. We do give them functional names, so we can talk about specific girls. There is a Brown Girl (an Americauna, mostly brown), Gray Girl (an Americauna, with gray undertones), Fat Head (an Americauna, who as a chick had the fattest head), Medium Girl (the medium sized Rhode Island Red), Scraggly Girl (a red, with scraggly, thin feathers, especially on her head) and Sore Foot (a Dominique, who hurt her foot a year or two ago). That leaves four other Dominiques that we usually can’t tell apart. Until they develop a defining characteristic (one may soon be known as Black Foot, for the black spots on her feet and legs), they will be referred to as “one of the Dominiques.”

Medium Girl, ready for 2011

Congratulations, Medium Girl! We are lucky to have you working for us!