Americauna (Easter Egger)
Rhode Island Red
Here are the little darlings at week 3. I made my husband call them that (little darlings) yesterday as he was picking them up. It calms them down, of course. He was saying it in a tone that was rather too sarcastic for my taste though.
They are going through an awkward stage. Growing into their feathers.
Yesterday it was time for their introduction to the great outdoors. We put chicken wire around some trees and let them run around in the sun.
They weren't interested, at first - I had to literally shake them out of the box. Even then, a few of them clung to the side, desparately trying to scramble back in.
Birds just don't like change.
But once they were outside for a little while, they realized that they might be having fun.
There's still a lot of leaping going on, only now with wing-assist. So it's actually a flying leap.
They enjoy taking flying leaps at each other and play-fighting. I believe they're establishing the pecking order.
Jasmine had to be locked up for a little while because she wasn't behaving.
And even though my husband had told me to watch my head, I didn't. I was concentrating on picking up chicks instead, and wondering why they always seem to think that we're out to kill them.
So now I know what it feels like to be whacked in the back of the head with rebar. (It hurts!)
You just gotta love those adolescent chickens!
ReplyDeleteI would never get anything done around the house if I had chickens...what with watching their antics and then blogging about it.
ReplyDeleteThe chickens look like hawks with chicken heads.
ReplyDeleteHow strange..
Such a great blog. It is very appealing.
ReplyDeleteI love rebar - I view it as one of THE essential tools. We used it to make our quarter-mile electric fence (believe it or not), and what a flexible easy-to-repair-and-invisible thing it is. I also use it for staking tomato and other garden plants.
Never got hit in the head with it though, but I stopped hammering it into the ground below our deck when I had visions of the cats falling from the railing and impaling themselves on it.
They are getting bigger by the day. Today they jumped to the top of the area they're staying (old small water trough)... time to move to the new (bigger) one!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wayne, I like your place too! My husband now tells me that it was not technically rebar, but it sure looks like it to me. Except it has this part that sticks out to the side, that is easy to hit your head on.
"You just gotta love those adolescent chickens!"
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say they are teen chickens.
I never got on well with chickens when we had them. Especially this old rooster named Henry who my parents insist that I killed (apparently one day he was chasing me--I hated that @#$% Henry!--and suddenly stopped. Then keeled over dead.) I was only 3 or 4 at the time. What, did they think I karate-chopped him?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, cute lil darlings you got here. Not like that fricking Henry at all.
No, I'm over my fear of chickens. Really. Why do you ask? :-)
Maktaaq, they are definitely at an awkward stage! Still very entertaining though.
ReplyDeleteMM, we have one like that too. Never thought of running him to death though. :)
That rooster is pretty tough looking!
ReplyDeleteI WANT some chickens!! grew up with them as a kid - life since then has taken a turn for the mundane :)
ReplyDeleteOur chickens are a week old now. I wish I had brought my camera home with me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they hatched, the rooster was starting to attack everyone whenever they got close.
Pretty funny.
Maktaaq, he is mean AND sneaky. But he's pretty, and he does alert the girls if there is danger in the area. Plus he's an Easter Egger rooster, which means that he should be carrying the blue-egg laying gene. So if our chicks hatch, they might have it too.
ReplyDeleteYllstonewolf, go ahead! My hubby's family had bantams even when they lived in the suburbs. Just don't get roosters if you have close neighbors. Also if you live in an apartment that might complicate things. :)
Bamacrat, you didn't say which kind of chickens... perspiring minds want to know.