9 Months Old

Actually, 9 months and 1 week (plus a month for Olive) but this week has found my business booming and i've been more than a little busy, which is great - but not condusive to chasing chickens around for the perfect shot.

But here they are: from day one to 9 months, laying like champs, full of things to say, and perfectly willing to leap into our laps at the most inconvenient times (for our toast, especially).

Little Dotti the silver laced wyandotte turned out a roo and was swapped for sweet Olive who is one month older than the other girls and the champion layer (9-10 days in a row without a break, consistently). She's so sweet, but so picked on by the other gals: she's 4th on the pecking order.

Belina the buff orpington was the biggest of the chicks, big enough that all the others thought it would be great to try and cuddle underneath her all the time. She's become a big, dumb blonde: the weakest layer, but a great lap chicken!

Number two on the pecking order and faster than a speeding BB, is B.B. our chantecler (a very endangered breed of chicken from Canada). She is the most treat obsessed and the best at catching bugs. She was the first to lay and is quite consistent, though her eggs are rather small: so is she! Our little football chicken: always moving about and the hardest to photograph.

And then there is our Queen Soot the Australorp. From the start she's had the most personality, is inquisitive with tons to say all the time, she holds herself in a regal manner and you must pick her up with great care and reverence. She lays beautiful large, dark brown eggs and leads her flock with prudence and a watchful eye.

They are a wonderful first flock and i hope for many years with them: safe and sound. We fear hawks, feral cats, and local 'coons. But despite our fears, we care for them the best we can and both agree we will never live without chickens again: they are truly wonderful animals.

Treat obsessed minds.

I hope to get some better, sunshiny portraits of them for their first birthday in a few months: hopefully they won't be molting at the time, but i'll be sure and post all about the molt process when it DOES happen.

Have a great day, and enjoy a bit of humor on Soot:

Get the peanut, Soot. Quite the feat: leaping so high with clipped wings.

Sunday Chicken Musings/Humor

My chooks are spoiled, ridiculous girls.

Chickens are supposed to 'know' that it is bed time and amble back to their coop and roost. This activity is often so reliable that folks can install automatic doors that open and close with the beginning and ending of the day.

My girls?
Apparently they still think my husband and I are the head hens and need to be snuggled with. When the sun goes down our girls don't head for their coop, they huddle around the back porch: "Chickens in the house?"

When they were wee chicks we would often put them to sleep on our tummies while we sat on the couch. I guess they still think that's the place to be.

No, girls. That porch chair is not your roost.

Olive, our wild little Wyandotte who's life started out in a farmyard, is the only one with any sense. But as she's the bottom of the pecking order, nobody listens to her and Andy has to lead them into their proper resting place.

Do you raise chickens? Do they have any ridiculous antics you'd like to share?