Evening Rounds -- All Present, All Accounted For

The evening clip rolls and my girls are exactly where they should be: out in the yard, heads down, doing what chickens do best. Foraging. The overcast sky has softened the light into something flat and grey, but there is still enough of it left in the day for them to work the grass.

Lady Buffington opened the clip right in my face, as is her custom. She and the big unnamed black hen were foraging together, side by side, practically shoulder to shoulder. These two have become a unit. Wherever Buffington goes, the black hen follows, and vice versa. They spent the first minute pecking at the grass near my camera mount, close enough that I could count individual feather barbs on Buffington's golden plumage.

Around the one-minute mark, Duchess Noir appeared near the coop ramp. She is the cautious one -- always foraging near an exit, never straying far from the structure. I do not think this is fear exactly. It is more like prudence. She knows where safety is and she keeps it within sprinting distance. Smart girl.

Then Buffington decided to investigate me. She walked directly over the camera and spent a solid thirty seconds with her undercarriage filling my entire field of vision. Golden feathers, fluffy pantaloons, the works. I have never had a more intimate view of a buff orpington's flank, and I could have done without it. But her feathers look excellent -- dense, well-maintained, no bare patches. She is in fine health.

While Buffington was using me as a footrest, Henrietta drifted into view on the right side of frame. Lavender-grey, quiet, keeping her distance. She forages near the others but maintains a buffer zone. Not antisocial -- just self-contained. I caught her clearly around the three-minute mark, and her plumage looks clean and full.

The star of this clip, though, is the unnamed black hen. When she moved close to the camera around the four-minute mark, her feathers caught what little light remained and threw back an iridescent shimmer -- blue-green, like a magpie's wing, like oil on water. It is genuinely beautiful. She has a strong red comb, good body weight, and she moves with a confidence that the smaller Duchess Noir lacks. At one point I could see both black hens in the same frame and the size difference was unmistakable.

She needs a name. Something that honours that iridescence. I will think on it.

The clip ended as it began: Buffington and the big black hen, side by side, pecking at the grass in front of the coop. A quiet, ordinary evening. All four hens present. No signs of illness or distress. The grass is holding up reasonably well, though some patches near the coop are looking thin -- they might benefit from the coop being moved to fresh ground soon.

Autumn is settling in. The days are getting shorter and the light is going earlier. But my girls seem unbothered. They forage until the last minute and then they will take themselves to bed. I will check the next clip to make sure they all go in safely.

Flock Status

Hen	Status	Notes
Lady Buffington	Healthy, active	Feathers in excellent condition. Extremely bold with the camera.
Henrietta	Healthy, active	Keeping slightly to herself. Plumage clean and full.
Duchess Noir	Healthy, active	Foraging near coop entrance. Cautious but not stressed.
Unnamed black hen	Healthy, active	Stunning iridescent plumage. Strong red comb. Needs a name.

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