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Monday July 23

Reading the comments, I find it crazy so many are defensive on the farm issue. Do many of those people live in farm country? Because I do, and that's pretty much what farmers around here would say. It would be said with a wink and a smirk, but it would be said. It was a joke, people. And farmers tease and joke about their occupation just the same as the rest of the world does.

RuthE from Ohio

The Rooster! What a kick. Ours was quite a gentlemen, unless you were wearing sandals. Chore boots were fine with him; tennis shoes, no problem; bare feet were no worries; but if you were wearing sandals in the chicken yard, you faced the wrath of Charlie!

Torby from Illinois

In the paper today, you mentioned 2 names...Bev & Vern. You rarely see those two names together! My name is Bev & my husbands name is Vern Married over 50 years. We had to laugh!!

Bev

I remember my grandparents having a henhouse for the chickens. it never occurred to my maternal side that farmed to allow them near the pigs. but then all of them survived that way. I found out the hard way too that those birds are territorial. the day I helped my grandfather collect their eggs. they knew my grandfather. me, they chased out of that building and fast.....

Sangelia of Minnesota

Dear Lynn Johnston, I very much enjoyed your story about the rooster in your Lynn's Notes from July 20, 2012. My sister raises chickens and needless to say, if she had seen your in-laws' handling of the rooster and the new chicken, she would have given them a stern lecture. There is a proper way to introduce a new chicken to other chickens or a rooster. You put the chicken in a cage near the chicken coop so the other chickens get used to seeing each other for a few days. Another practice is to put the chicken on an empty perch in the chicken coop. Chickens are blind and helpless in the dark, so they have no choice but to allow a new chicken to nest with them. Dumping a chicken out of a burlap sack in front of a sleeping rooster is way down near the very bottom of the list of good methods. It is no surprise this resulted in the rooster attacking the hen.

Paul S. Oro Valley, Arizona

The chickens lived in the pig barn? No wonder they vanished! My husband's grandmother kept chickens. When the rooster attacked her, she wrung his neck, and they had chicken and dumplings that night!

Nancy, Alabama

Obviously you were not a farmer either. A rooster is not necessary or even desired for egg production. An unfertilized egg does no go rotten where a fertilized one does.

Ron, Lawrence, KS

Jokes about poor animals who die due to the incompetence of their human stewards aren't funny at all. Think of the miserable deaths those chickens had, all preventable.

Cyn, TN

Lynn: I would add to your comments on your website re: last Thursday's strip, that implying that organic farming means "mostly weeds" is taking the wrong track and imparting false information. As an organic farmer, I took offense at the implication. Know that all those skills you apply to farmers apply in spades and then some to organic farmers. It is a dis-service to those of us who are working hard to keep toxic chemicals out of our food supply and our environment to imply that our farms are weedy, unless you want to also note the service that having the occasional weed offers in terms of better health for people and the planet.

Diana in Hawaii

re: Organics: Better weeds than pesticides!

Lucia

I definitely don't think 7/22's strip or punchline missed the mark :)

Monica, California

I don't think it missed the mark at all -- it was spot on.

Bettyhere

I know that you probably got a lot of letters that confused you about how sweet and perfect the last panel of the strip with Michael, Mrs Baird and the flowers was. You might have thought that you went wide of the target and still seem to think that way but you actually didn't.

Paul Jones, Saint John, New Brunswick

Regarding your comment on today's (7/22/12) strip: your description of your intent was right on the money with what I got out of it. I think that those of us who have been following FBoFW for so many years know exactly what a kind-hearted young man Michael is. He's also a little boy who doesn't like to be "mushy".

Jan C, Henderson, NV