chicks and cats and kids better hurry

I am fairly sure our cats are not at all pleased with our new family additions. They and the chickens are on equal footing offensively and defensively and don’t threaten each other physically at all. However, yesterday the chicks discovered the cats’ food and can’t get enough of it. Golem got pissed off this morning and just walked out.

six and a half weeks

I think we lost a week in there somewhere. We’ve had a growth explosion since out last photos.
These gals should really be outside but with the wet spring weather, we haven’t yet finished the coop. They’re starting to smell more and are really too big for their box. Hopefully by next weekend they’ll be out.

more on the coop

After we’d painted the first coat we thought we probably should have just left the natural wood color and done a sealant instead of paint. It went on in a shocking shade of pink and dried to blood red.
Still to come...roof, ramp, bottom enclosure and chicken wire.

birdfeeder

What the heck is that squirrel thinking?
She does this every day for about an hour.

half naked

It’s still cold. The last days of Winter. This is a child, though, who likes to take off her clothes. The shirts she doesn’t care much about but the socks, pants and panties have got to go. She removes them whenever it occurs to her then runs into the room joyfully giggling, “I’m half naked! I’m half naked!”

i think i once saw this at a wedding

There isn’t really anything more to say here.

they venture out of doors

While Naiya and I were out of town, Ryan took the girls on their first outdoor adventure. He’s been out there in the on again/off again warm weather working on the coop. By the time we got home the hen house doors had been added as well as the front wall of the hen house (with a window!) and the people door for entry into the coop. From the photos, it seems the girls like to stick together, even when given lots of space to roam.

at three weeks

The girls are looking a little scraggley in their third week. Their tail feathers are starting to come in as are those on the backs of their necks. Jak was once again displeased with the flash and offered us this great wicked chicken shot.

what kind

And so it begins...
“What’s that?” Naiya asks.
“It’s a flower,” I answer.
“What kind of flower?”
“A crocus.”
“What kind of crocus?”
“The purple kind.”
“What kind of purple kind?”
“The kind that blossoms in Spring.”
“What kind of Spring?”
“Uh...
hmm...”

a bird in the hand

The girls are now two weeks old and their wing feathers are really getting established. They’re much like newborn children in that all they do all day is eat, poop or sleep. After about 10 minutes of walking about on the kitchen floor they’re worn out and just fall asleep in hand. That’s oddly endearing.
They don’t much like the indoor camera shots. We catch a lot of these spread wing pics as a result of frightened chick in the blinding light of camera flash.

her name is juniper

Ryan decided to call the last chicken The Baroness. After a few hours he changed her name. It just wasn’t feeling right. He has settled on Juniper.
She’s the odd runt of our little flock. She’s smaller than the other two and likes to sleep on top of the water or feed jars. The benefit of this select roosting location is that her poop fills the water and food jars more quickly with that lovely post digestion refuse and we now need to clean them out five or six times a day instead of the previous two or three.