fragile had been placed there and he wanted to keep it safe without gripping too tightly. They returned to the figures a few minutes later, but neither pretended the conversation had remained only about chickens. That evening, when he left by the back door, she found herself smiling in the darkness after the sound of his boots had faded.
By midsummer the flock counted ninety-two birds of different ages, including the original twelve, the younger breeding groups, and birds she intended to sell or keep once they matured. Not all were layers, and not all carried the unusual coloring, and Vera made certain nobody misunderstood that when she spoke about the size of the operation. A farm that had begun with one crate now required separate pens, feed schedules, health checks, and a young helper who had learned to work without waiting for every instruction. The two barns were occupied, and the Henderson property no longer looked abandoned.
The college expanded its study after receiving consistent records from the new generation. Professor Whitfield wrote that he could not yet assign a final breed identity, but that the line showed enough unusual and potentially useful characteristics to justify preserving it for further work. He asked about supplying additional qualified birds and hatching eggs to collaborating farms, and Vera negotiated quantities she believed she could deliver without weakening her own stock. She had learned that selling more than she could safely produce was not growth; it was an obligation waiting to turn into embarrassment.
Six farms in three counties eventually received hatching eggs from the Aldren operation. Vera packed them carefully, marked the collection dates, and included plain instructions explaining what she knew and did not know about the line. She did not promise every hatchling would be silver or every pullet would lay an exceptional egg. Some buyers accepted the uncertainty because they liked the prospect of helping preserve a potentially valuable old strain, while others wanted guarantees no honest breeder could offer. Vera was content to lose the latter rather than sell them a story that would fail as soon as the first dark chick emerged.
One buyer wrote back angrily after his first hatch produced several brown-feathered birds. Vera sent him the original terms and a courteous explanation that color and laying traits could separate in offspring, as the documents had clearly stated. She offered to review his hatch records if he wished, but she did not refund the price of birds she had never promised would look identical. A week later he wrote again to say the chicks were healthy and growing well, and that perhaps he had been too quick to complain. She placed both letters in the file, because a business record ought to include its uncomfortable conversations along with the pleasant ones.