Thursday, July 17, 2008

Perching is for lovers



I like how they use the window as a perch, well, anything will serve as a perch, really. Greta flew into the small maple that is in their run today and perched there a while.





They are starting to get their "chicken voices" as we call it. Their babyish coos are now turning into the classic chicken "bock" sound. They're pretty quiet overall, unless they get in a skirmish fighting over the pieces of grass we shove through the fence.
The 3 main pigs are Beverly -she's a biter - Margaret, and Marlene. Greta is a little scrapper now, getting underneath all the others to claim her share of whatever is offered.
Coco doesn't seem too concerned with fighting for grass and Daphne hangs back a lot, too.

Friday, July 11, 2008

getting to be friends

hanging with Beverly


Hanging out with Beverly:

chicken antics

Coco is getting ever more beautiful plumage

Friday, July 4, 2008

out into the wonderful world of yard

Since Coco, Daphne, Margaret and Greta seemed like they could practically fly out of the box by this point and had all their feathers, we deemed them old enough to make the transition into their new coop in the early part of June.

They seemed a little out of sorts at the change of scenery and huddled together in a pile inside the coop, but then Larissa said sometimes you have to show them what to do and physically put them outside.

Eric did that and once they discovered the wonderful outdoor world, they were loving it.







The first night they were outside, I was like a nervous, new mother, envisioning all kinds of dangers befalling them: raccoons, my own cat, frostbite even though it was summer, and had trouble sleeping for fear something would happen to them.
I even got up much to Eric's annoyance at 3 in the morning to check on them and was amazed to find them sleeping on the "Front porch" of the coop and not inside. It was a little chilly in P-town still at this point, so it seemed weird and called "chicken larry's help hotline" for advice. She reiterated the bit about showing them what to do and said to shove them inside at nightfall.

growing up!





This is right before we moved them from "Brooder" aka cardboard box with light to their new luxurious coop.

As you can see, the dog was very smitten with them, and whined outside their bedroom door when it was shut. She loves them just a little too much.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Sorry!

I wanted to apologize for the lack of posts lately - we have a ton of pics but our computer died and I just picked it up from the repair dude today. So - I'll be updating this here blog over the next few days.

The chickens have ceased to be cute fuzzy little babies and have grown into vaguely prehistoric creatures who bite me when i try to give them new water. They even pecked the dog yesterday. Hee-larious.

I still love them however and am not going to "just eat them" as several people have suggested.