Butters Story

[BooBear]

The temperatures have been cold this past week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the evenings dropped to freezing temperatures. Ofcourse, the kids were completely unaware of this as they were in their warm cozy brooder with the shining red glow above them. They spent their first week learning new things such as how to drink, eat, and exercise their wings and legs to grow stronger.

Everyone has their wing feathers coming in. The older kids have longer wing feathers than Butters who is the baby of the bunch.
Butters watched his older playmates happily playing fly tag with each other. Ofcourse, she knew it was no fun being the chick at the receiving end of fly tag. Cole was flapping his wings and standing as tall as he could as if to say look at me and what I am gonna do! Next thing he does is launch up and fly into the girls using them for a soft landing. Squeals of protest ensued.

Butters made sure not to be standing in the line of fire but could not resist the urge to play too. However, Piper noticed Butters preparing to launch and gave her a peck to warn her not to. Poor Butters tried to duck but still got pecked, so she ran into the group to hide from Piper. Phebe had enough of Cole's game and decided to let him know it. They began to chest bump for dominance, Cole backed down. Butters thought wow Phebe is one tough she chick. While this was going on Esther decided to fly and tackle Scooter who was minding her own business in a corner. Poor Scooter sqwacked and ran across the food trough. Her high pitch sound startling everyone into scattering to the corners of the brooder for safety. They all started looking around to see what the danger was and after a few minutes resumed their play.

While the kids spent their day in the safety of their warm brooder, little do they know that a new brooder was being setup to move them from the cozy house to the shop. This new pen is temperary as the Big Brooder Hutch with ample space is yet to be moved to the new location where the lamps can be setup. (Dad had a bad fall and hurt his leg so we cannot move the heavy Big Brooder Hutch until he heals up). The giants that care for them are expecting nice weather finally and have decided that the week old chicks need to be moved out of the house now.

 

[BooBear]

02-12-2011: The chicks woke up the same as every morning into their usual routine. The giant popped in to give them some fresh water and fill their food dish for them. However, the giant wanted to play with them and stuck her big hand in and petted some of the chicks. A few protested as they did not want their soft fluff messed up nor did they want to be picked up.

After their giant caretaker left the kids resumed their play and were getting pretty rowdy. Cole wanted to practice his flying techniques much to the dismay of the poor girl that was used for soft landing. Suddenly the giant came back with a strange big object. The object was placed near their brooder to where they could see it and before they had a chance to wonder what it was Cole was scooped up an placed inside. He let out a shriek of protest which sent everyone into panic. What was happening? One by one the giant scooped them up and placed them inside the carrier. Even the quiet hen was placed inside with them. The kids were chirping nervously not understanding what was happening.

As soon as everyone was inside the door to the strange carrier closed and they could feel that they were moving. The giant was taking them to their new home which had been prepared for them. This was a temporary home until the Big Hutch Brooder was setup for them. Very gently the giant placed them into their new home.

The kids recognized the food dish and their water dish. However, the new home was different. There was a dark room on one end with something inside it. The giant placed a frisbee with sand in it to offer a distraction to the newness of their surroundings. Butters found this most interesting and decided to check it out.

The sand was fascinating and fun to peck out. Butters liked the way the sand felt on her feet. Piper saw that Butters was having fun in the dark room and wanted to know what she was doing. Soon Piper found herself playing with Butters in the sand. Both Piper and Butters chirped happily which attracted the others that they had something good. Soon the kids were all pushing their way to a spot in the sand. The urge to bathe took over them.

The giant stayed for a bit to watch them settle into their new home and when satisfied that they would be fine she left them to explore and have some fun. The kids settled in nicely and were back to playing their favorite games with each other.

 

[artsyrobin]

so cute!!! love hearing about butter and family!

 

[BooBear]

02-17-2011:

The other giant (Dad) came to visit the kids with a surprise for them. Today he setup the Big Brooder Hutch and decided to move them while their normal care taker was away at work.

Butters and the others were ecstatic over the abundance of space. They could not below how big this home was. They ran, jumped, and flew from one end to the other making happy sounds. Why Dad even gave them some scratch (cracked corn). The kids were beside themselves over their sudden gain. The scratch was gobbled up in no time. Piper noticed something very different about this new home. On the end opposite of their red glow light were bars. She decided to check them out and flew up to the lower bar. The bar felt nice on her feet and offered a great view of the brooder. She also got a great view of the outside area.

The others were soon coping Piper. They all discovered that it was great fun to fly up to the bars and use them to launch across the brooder. They were flying aces in their minds as they made a new fly game. Cole no longer felt the need to use his brooder mates as landing pads as he was too happy to just race them across the brooder.
The kids noticed that outside the brooder the air was different, there were different smells, sounds, and sights. They even heard the clucking of the bigger chickens that were foraging nearby. The kids ran to the front to see who was making the clucking and saw the big Wyandottes looking back up at them. They did not know that this particular brooder was the Wyandottes home until recently when the main coop was completed to where the caretakers could move the Wyandottes.

The hens below were fussing, who were these wee chickens that had taken their home? Why were they so small? The kids realizing the bigger girls could not get them felt safe enough to stare back and watch the bigger girls.

02-20-2011
One of the caretakers was running around bringing everyone their food. She even brought the kids more sand to play in. Butters was happily playing with Scooter and the others. Phebe was up on the perch with Cole coming over to bug her when their caretaker held out the strange box that makes the clicking sounds. Phebe looked at the caregiver curiously wondering if there would be a treat also.

The others were not so thrilled to have their pictures taken, why they have not even bathed yet. 4 of the kids have long tails now and everyone is getting new feathers in. The sand feels so good when you have new feathers coming in. Scooter immediately began to dust bathe when the sand was placed inside for them. Their caretaker also placed something new inside. Piper looked at it with suspicion. She pecked timidly at it. Edi (was Esther but the giant keeps calling her Edi which is short for Edith) grabbed a piece of the green item which tasted good. She made a happy sound which triggered the others to chase her. Soon everyone was grabbing a piece of the new stuff which was some tender grass shoots that the caretaker gave them to play with. The caretaker wanted to get a good picture with Butters; however, Butters decided that she really did not want the clicking box to have a good view of her. Butters dodged behind Scruffy, Scooter, and Spot who were similiar in color to her. Nice to have friends that can camaflage you.

The Wyandottes stopped by again to see what all the fuss from the wee chickens was about. They were greeted with happy, curious little faces looking back down at them. The kids watched the big Wyandottes scratching about their home and noticed that they were eating the same yummy green grass their caregiver gave to them. That was their grass! Piper got the others to fuss at the Wyandottes to leave their area alone. Big Boy just smirked at the youngsters and looked at them like come on down if you wanna go over it. Big Boy has been feeling extra fiesty lately; ofcourse, all of the young roosters where starting to feel the changes that come when they first begin to come of age.

The kids found that watching the Wyandottes was quite entertaining. As soon as the Wyandottes moved on the kids went back to playing.

 

[BooBear]

Quote:
Thanks, I forgot to add some of their changes in so had to catch up on the blog. The kids have had some big changes in the past week getting move around. The Big Brooder Hutch will be their home for awhile until they are big enough to be intergrated with the main flock.

 

[jojo54]

Great story! Waiting for more Butter adventures.

 

[b.hromada]

I love that blog! How cute is that?! Your fuzzies are so adorable.

thanks for sharing.

 

[BooBear]

The kids have been growing so fast and are getting big.
At 4 weeks everyone had most of their feathers in except on their heads. The food and water dishes were changed to hanging dishes. At first the kids were not sure about it. Cole and Piper grumbled cus that big object was in the way of their flight path. The othets were happy with the new feeder and to busy eating to notice.

This week the kids are 5 weeks and have almost all of their head feathers now. I will get some pics posted once I get home.
Have a feeling Butters is not a girl as his comb is pinking up.
Butters loves to play fight with tje other boys. It also looks as if Piper may be a boy too. This will only leave 3 girls in the group. Pheobe, Scooter, and Edith (Edi).

The kids are as tall as the middle size Silkies and will soon be as tall as the largest Silkie Cinnimon. Pretty soon they will grow bigger than Cinnimon to.

It is so fun watching them growup.

 

[BooBear]

Here is a picture of Butters at 3 to 4 weeks finally posing for the camera. Butters is actually looking for an escape from the clicking box.

The kids are getting fiesty. These are 4 to 5 week pics.

Butters caught off guard again by the clicking box.

 

[BooBear]

Today Butters is 5 weeks old and going about his/her business as usually. Last night was a bit chilling but not so bad when you have lots of friends to cuddle with.
The Brooder is quite messy as the kids most energetically made big mess out of their swinging feeder. They scratched the mess into hills and played mountain chickens with it. Their caretaker felt it was time to clean up their dirty living quarters and had a surprise for the kids.

Butters noticed along with the others their caretaker opening a strange box with an unusual wire object. The caretaker unfolded the wire into a giant looking pen. Then she wandered over to the big chickies coop and brought out another wire object the same as the last one. Clipping them together she made a big pen and covered it with netting.
Next their old food dish was placed inside, then a water dish, and then a white box with play sand. OOOOO this got everyone's attention as they loved play sand.

The kids were straining to see what was going to happen next when the caretaker opened their brooder and picked up Spot. Spot liked being picked up so did not protest. The others watched as Spot was placed inside the playpen. Spot found himself on a green carpet that felt good on his feet. He did not know where to go but wanted to peck at all of the green at one time.

Next to get picked up without much fuss was Cole, then Pheobe, and Piper. The last 4 were scared to leave their comfy brooder and ran from the caregiver. After much protest they each found themselves caught up and placed inside the pen.

"Hey this is not so bad." said Butters

Butters loved the feel of the green carpet of grass and weeds under his/her feet. The kids were just getting to really enjoy themselves when their caretaker came back with another not so great surprise. It was a big fuzzy chickie with fuzzy feet and a big ball of fuzz on his head. This strange chickie was placed inside the pen with them.

"Who are you?" asked Cole
"I am Cinnimon." replied the strange chickie
"Oh, well just so you know Cinnimon I am the boss here." said Cole, who then gave Cinnimon the stare down.
"Kid do you want me to beat you up?" replied Cinnimon who was very fast to answer Cole's challenge. Cinnimon gave Cole a peck which made Cole quickly backdown.


In came more really fuzzy chickies. Rita, the sweet one, Blueberry, the fiesty one, Lola, the bully, and Shrek, the tiny one. All of the fuzzy chickies grouped together not sure about being placed inside the pen with the stranger hyper kids. Little did they know that their caretaker brought them out because she felt they needed some sunshine as they only hung out in the coop and would not join the wyandottes in foraging. Maybe they would get their confidence up in the play pen with the kids.

The kids were curious and wanted to estabilish their pecking order over the Silkies. However, Cinnimon kept the kids in their place. Cinnimon decided to scare the kids some to make sure they would not try to challenge his flock again so he waited until the kids were settling for a nap and jumped in on them with a fierce sound. The poor kids leaped up and scattered sqawking in fear. To make sure they got the point Cinnimon repeated this 2 more times when the kids tried to rehuddle. Satisfied that they understood, he then snuggled up to his girls Rita and Blueberry.

Lola wanted to have a bit of fun too with the kids but when Lola tried to get one of them Cinnimon gave her/him a warning peck and stare. Lola backed down and pretended to scratch instead.

The kids pretty much seemed to stay in their group and the Silkies in their group. The caretaker decided to toss in some yummy treats to get them to mix a bit. Eventually they began to relax around each other. Just as the kids were having fun Piper looked up to see a chickie looking at him that was even bigger then Cinnimon. It was Saphire who came over to see why they were out of their brooder. Lester also stopped by to look at them. He let out a chuckle when he saw the Silkies trapped in the playpen with the kids.

Lester then casually walked back over to were his girls were dust bathing. A few of the mean girls stopped by too. One took a bit of sport to try to peck the kids through the wire. Butters did not like her attitude and pecked back. Butters neck feathers were all ruffled up as he/she showed this oversized bully that he/she was not afraid at all and could take her on.

Eventually the day wound down and evening was setting in. The caretaker came back and took the Silkies back to their coop. Then she came back to take the kids one by one back to their brooder. The kids really did not want to go back as they were having fun foraging and running about in the pen. Each chick fussed and paced once placed back into the brooder. "Awe, please let us play just a little bit longer." they chirped. However, the caretaker does not speak chicken and so did not understand what they were chirping at her. Eventually, they all settled down and went to their sleepy spot to cuddle.