“Harriet”
Most inquisitive and outgoing of all 27 chicks. She is a barred rock. We started with five of them, but the two who have died were barred rocks. We are sad about that because the three remaining girls stand apart from the other chicks, especially Harriet. Everyone seems healthy, hopefully we won’t lose anymore. We are considering giving one of the three roosters to the fellow that we currently buy eggs from. He has chicks the same age right now. I figure it would be easier to part now than later. Okay, I am going to try to limit chicken posts to no more than two per week. I cannot make any promises though. These guys have totally renewed my warm fuzzy feelings toward animals. I am even using my really embarrassing baby talk voice with them. Actually, I don’t often use this voice with my own human babies. It’s really ridiculous and there is even bad grammar involved. “Hers is just a widdle chicken.” Ahem. Maybe I have now shared a bit too much. I have never claimed to be normal. You should see me with a litter of feral kittens. I used to seriously upset Jonny. Of course those days are in my past now.
The chicks are two weeks old now and getting lots of feathers. This is supposed to be an awkward stage for them but I still think they are adorable. So adorable that I could just eat them up. Okay, bad joke, sorry. We aren’t going to eat them.
The nest boxes are finished minus the outside doors for easy access to the eggs. In this picture Jonny is practicing for future egg gathering expeditions. He still needs to finish siding the outside of the hen house, hang this metal sheeting we are using for the interior walls, hang the windows, build the door, and build the run. I think we’ve got about a week to get it all done. The chicks are doing a bit of flying around in the brooder. Soon they will be able to escape.
You are too funny! But those are seriously cute. I was SO fond of our chicks. (We hatched them from eggs when Lydia was homeschooling and kept them at the office.) One of them died; it was my favorite; with a little red cap on his head. Oh, I adored that tiny little chick. When it died I buried it out in the yard and went back into the office. I don't recall who said what, but I remember suddenly bursting out sobbing – SOBBING – in the middle of the office. I remember it mainly because the stunned faces of the ladies who were standing there are imprinted on my memory!
It is so sweet that you love animals so much. 🙂
She does look like she will have attitude. =)
Hi Marj,The hen house is Jonny's own design. He designed it around the materials we already had and some we found used and free. We already had a concrete pad and he used that as the footprint. All five of the breeds we have are actually large. They are going to be big chickens!
What an adorable little chickie! I want one so badly. Harriet is the cutest little thing but you can tell she's going to have a good dose of self-confidence to slather on her fellow broodmates. She's got style. Sophisticated and above it all, she's just waiting for Jonny to finish the coop and then she's going to be home and I bet she ends up at the top of the ladder when the pecking order is over and done with. I'm curious, did you guys purchase a coop kit or is Jonny designing as he builds? He's awfully good if he's doing it on his own. Well, I guess he's awfully good even if it came as a kit. Remember the kind of instructions we get from things made in China as I'm sure this was if it was a kit so Jonny is still good either way.Hubby is not feeling well for the third day in a row. He has a 4:00 appt today with his doc and maybe he can give him something to counter all the nausea and vomiting. We have no idea what's wrong with him. We thought it might be the new meds he was put on but he didn't take any all day yesterday and he's still sick. If it were the medicine he'd be better by now, I'm sure. Are these standard chickens, or are they of the mini variety? Will their eggs be normal size or little bantam ones? I can't wait to see Harriet all grown up and sophisticated, ruling her corner of the hen house. My sister is terrified of chickens and I just love them to pieces!
Oh my goodness, Harriet is soooooooooo cute!Funny, how I'm so deathly afraid of birds, yet little chickens are just the cutest thing to me. I don't think she looks awkward at all! I just love her markings!