My first flock! (With pics!)

[ci_cyfarth]

My willpower broke last night and I brought my chicks some edible wild violets from the yard. The barred rock in particular seemed quite adept at playing keep-away with her three flockmates! So much running! So much cheeping!

Baby chicks are quite possibly the best entertainment I've encountered in ages.

 

[ci_cyfarth]

I realized today that I still haven't taken "proper" photos of the girls with anything better than my phone. Doh! Here they are, in all their (partially) feathery glory:



Barbara (aka Ranch Dressing), my Barred Rock. Of all of them she's got the most feathers overall, but they're kind of oddly uniform. It makes her look kind of spiky when she puffs out!



Katarina (aka BBQ), my Australorp. Of the four she's the hardest one to pick up, but once I've got her in hand she's a sweetie. Very feisty, tried to jump out of the brooder at me this morning, is the first one to my hand when I have treats.



Susan (aka Sweet & Sour), my Easter Egger. She's got this lovely little trill sometimes when she chirps, and if I pet her neck just right she falls asleep in my hand.



Vicki (aka Honey Mustard), my Buff Orpington. Probably the friendliest chick of the four, loves to come up and let me scritch her chest in the brooder.

The roommate is responsible for the dipping sauce nicknames, but my nerd friends and I were the ones who decided to name them after Doctor Who companions. Today was their first encounter with mealworms, which I was not prepared for in terms of sheer chickeny mayhem. You'd think they'd need an introduction to the things to know to converge on my hand with that level of enthusiasm, but no. Also, I bought the small ones this time around because I wasn't sure about their ability to eat them. As it turns out I should not have worried.

Well, okay, I should have worried about the possibility of losing a finger, but...