rnchick74- So exciting! They are all terribly cute, but I am especially jealous of Pippa and Flora, I want some blues! Funny you parked in the same spot we did 3 months ago and had the same lady check you out, she was super nice. Looking forward to seeing more pics of the girls settling in! (Tried to post this last night but the internet was out)
NotableNancy- Haha $28/dz sounds about right! Seriously though I don't know why some people only charge $2-3, $5-8 is more realistic especially for organic. But I guess they figure no one would pay that and if other folks continue to undercharge, then they won't. Of course we aren't planning on selling this year, I already told our two closest neighbors they would get free eggs to smooth things over when telling them about chicken keeping. Though they will be more like half a dozen gifts every other week. We don't have enough layers to keep the neighbors and my local family in eggs, especially when the neighbors gave me an empty three row egg carton to use, I wanted to say "yeah that's wishful thinking!" They have 4 teenagers though and grandkids that come every weekend. Just more reason to get more chicks in the spring and then start charging, because I think they would actually like to pay, of course I'll probably only tell them $3... BUT when we have land and dozens upon dozens of rainbow egg layers set up a stand at the farmers markets I'll charge more
In my small flock's news my husband's Dorking, Victoria, has decided she wants to be a lap chicken, or rather *my* lap chicken, as her daddy doesn't come to hang out in the run and thinks I'm silly for doing so. She is the one I have spent the least hands on time with because of his wishes. Though technically she was the first one I snuggled with on the first day because she was the runt and I was worried about her. Then he told me I better not imprint on her. So I would take everyone else out for individual bonding time and she had to wait until he got home. Yeah, I should have never listened to him and I didn't always stick to it, but she wasn't as close with me as Baby (who still is) or Amelia and Morgaine who have since distanced themselves from me. But she's a docile Dorking and has recently decided she wants the affection.
Yesterday she hopped on my shoulder while I had Baby on my lap and chilled there for a bit. This morning both she and Baby hopped up on my back while I was setting the feeder down, then scratched their way up to my shoulders (I need to wear some protective clothing). They eventually hopped down, but soon she came back while I was sitting cross legged and looked up at me tentatively as if to ask "Would it be okay if I sat on your lap" I said "Of course and encouraged her" and she snuggled down with me for quite awhile while I petted her. Later when Baby was on my lap she can back and gave me the same look like "Could I possibly join you?" So I shifted Baby over to one leg and Victoria hopped on the other and they both rested their head on my arms while I reached my hands around to stroke them. Very happy moment. I'm so glad Baby wasn't pecking at her like last week when I was holding each of the girls. This morning the other girls were only interested in pecking and scratching my skirt which has lots of patterns on it. Note to self, get a hold of more hippie skirts, but wear jeans under them for protection.
Also yesterday I deciphered my noisy, bossy, treat hogging Maran, Morgaine's language. She honks when I give them hand fed treats, usually through the wire, especially berries and dandelion greens. There are two distinct rhythms- a shorter "honk, honk" "honk, honk" when I am getting the treat ready that sounds like "give me!" "give me!" and then the louder more drawn out "honk, honk *pause* HONNNK!" when the treat in question is gone which sounds like "Give me MORE!" or "I want MORE!" She's the one that pecks and chases the others away when they get their treat ball. She used to let Clara and Victoria stay with her and the ball and just chase Baby and Amelia (the lighter warmer colored girls) but lately she's been shooing Clara too. I'm trying to figure out when Amelia went from the bold leader to the timid quiet pullet she is now. Probably once the pecking started, she and Clara used to just raise her necks higher than the others during a challenge, but now they both cower and turn tail. Still no major fighting and I often will sneak the other girls some treats on the side while Morgaine is busy with the ball.
Still working on re-gaining Clara's trust, she is so skittish and my son is disappointed since she is his chicken. She's fine once she's in my arms, but hates to be pet or picked up. I think I need to try some one on one treat reinforcement. This could help with Morgaine and Amelia too.
