Eggs!! Around July 1st.

At first, they laid a range of sizes, from jumbo (30oz) to peewee (yep, you heard that right, less than 15oz).

Poem

Grandma Margaret sent a clipping from the May 24th New Yorker, a poem by Gary Whitehead called "A Glossary of Chickens".

There should be a word for the way
they look with just one eye, neck bent,
for beetle or worm or strewn grain.
“Gleaning,” maybe, between “gizzard”
and “grit.” And for the way they run
toward someone they trust, their skirts
hiked, their plump bodies wobbling:
“bobbling,” let’s call it, inserted
after “blowout” and before “bloom.”
There should be terms, too, for things
they do not do—like urinate or chew—
but perhaps there already are.
I’d want a word for the way they drink,
head thrown back, throat wriggling,
like an old woman swallowing
a pill; a word beginning with “S,”
coming after “sex feather” and before “shank.”
And one for the sweetness of hens
but not roosters. We think
that by naming we can understand,
as if the tongue were more than muscle.

Growing, growing, no eggs yet!

Wattles and comb:



Built for sitting on eggs!

The cat is pretty interested, and the chickens try carrot peels

The first dust bath:

Poultry in motion (as advertised)

Poulet Beaucoup

AprilAprilApril::::::::

They've moved to the other side of the coop so they can go in and out. Eating grass, it's April, and life is sweet.


Have you ever seen a cuter bum:

Eating grass:

The food container:


Golden Sex-Link and Rhode Island Red:

The Great Outdoors

Ali has been getting them used to being in the coop yard. They love to eat worms! It took no teaching at all.

Happy Easter

Found this great card at the drugstore:

Meet the Gals!

Their names aren't quite set yet...Maybe when they are older and have more personality the names will stick better.
Home Sweet Home

Rhode Island Red 1

Rhode Island Red 2

Golden Sex Link 1...Penelope?

Golden Sex Link 2 (Pickle, but Nugget is another possibility)

First Week in the Coop

The chicks have become such good flyers (not fryers!!), we had to move them into the coop. In the last picture, you can see they spend time preening. I don't know how the feather growing process works, but it looks like the adult feather grows from the same pore where the chick feather is, so at the tip of the adult feather is the chick feather, which eventually rubs off and floats around the corners of the coop.

Eat Drink Sleep Grow

The first photo is the girls at 3 weeks old and the last two are them at 3 weeks and 3 days. They grow like weeds and do something new every day. During their second week home, they really gained use of their wings, enough so they could fly up and perch on the side of their box. Eventually they stopped wobbling on the edge--one day we found them perching asleep.