The Biggest Little Rooster -- grandchickies on the way!!

Love the photo of the girls piling into the nest box to warm up! Poor BeeBee's neck looks SO itchy!! And she needs a neck muffler or something if she is going out in the snow like that! I think the naked butt aspect of moult is the very worst part....It just looks too much like those "chicken type objects" you buy at the grocery store wrapped in plastic!! Happy birthday to Laurel and Hardy; maybe maturity will help Hardy develop more gentlemanly ways with the girls. Or maybe they will figure he is never going to learn any manners and just boot him out of the gang! Where are his Dad's genes? Laurel certainly has turned out to be a lovely lady. Thanks for continuing the story and posting photos!
 
It snowed all day, and everyone pretty much stayed inside. The next morning when they woke, the snow was quite deep. The humanguy had shoveled a path to their coop, and then shoveled a path from their pop door to their little covered shelter and food.
PathtoCoops.jpg


Two of the girls ran right out the door and down the newly shoveled path.
Jan31a.jpg


The others chose to stay inside. They had food and water inside-they had no reason to go out into that scary white stuff. Hardy stayed on the roost looking out the window. He saw the little tiny silkies next door come out of their coop. The snow was level with their little deck, and their little deck was white. One silkie stepped off the deck into the snow, and disappeared. Hardy chuckled as the little wings went flapping and the silkie jumped back on the deck. But then, he figured if the little silkie was not afraid of snow, he shouldn't be. After all, today was his "Birthday" and he was a full year old!
Hardy took a deep breath, stood tall and proud, and stepped out the pop door. Oh, that snow was cold!

Jan31b.jpg


He got stuck on the little porch when one of the big girls followed him out the pop door. This wasn't good! Now Hardy had to actually step down into the snow. He tried to pretend it didn't make him want to run screaming inside. He noticed there was some corn by the door. Taking lessons from Barney, he called to the girls that were still in the coop, and encouraged them to come get some treat.
The humanlady was standing at the edge of the coop lauging. Hardy was momentarily upset- he thought she was laughing at him. But then he heard some flapping, and turned around to look at was was happening.

Jan31c.jpg


One of the big girls was stuck in the snow. Hardy had no idea what to do. He figured the humanlady would help. Humanlady didnt seem to have any fear of walking through the snow. The big girl couldn't move. Her legs were stuck in the snow.
The good thing about chickens is that they have wings. They may not fly very high, or often, but wings were great for getting out of a snow jam.

As soon as he was ale to slip away, Hardy went back inside. One by one the big girls wandered out to the covered area, and Hardy was left alone. Alone isn't good, so Hardy put on his big boy pants and went out into the snow with the girls. The sun was shining, so it really wasn't as bad as he had feared. Most of the babies were out on their little deck. He was slightly concerned because he didn't hear his sisters-not even loud mouth Beebee.

BBMolt8.jpg


Poor Beebee sat on the roost most of the day, wishing she had feathers. She was even too cold to complain. Laurel and Essie kept her company, and huddled by her to keep her warm. They wandered as far as the center of their back deck. No one shoveled a path for them. But, no one shoveled a path because they didn't want the girls to be wandering around in the snow. It was not a fun day.
 
The day after the snow,one chicken was silly enough to come all the way out of her pen. The snow was cold on her feet, and she managed to find a fallen tree limb that wasn't totally covered wth snow to roost on. When the humanlady came home from work, she found poor Essie stuck on that branch, afraid to jump into the deep snow.
EssieStuck.jpg


After a few days, they all ventured out of their coops. It was just too cramped in there to be stuck inside anymore. The big girls and Hardy had a few paths to wander on. Even Hardy came out into the sunshine.

Brr.jpg

Brr2.jpg




The next day, they thought it was going to be even better, but it snowed again. It was still snowing the next day. ALL day! The chickens were getting sick of the snow.
The day after it stopped snowing, BeeBee and Essie turned one year old without much ado. Essie, of course wanted a big party with friends and cornbread and oatmeal and blueberries and watermelon and spaghetti. BeeBee wanted a cake with candes, so she could wish her feathers were all grown in when she blew out the candles. Laurel wished Beebee had feathers,also. She needed a little extra warmth. She had to use Essie as her blanket.
LaurelGettingWarm.jpg


Three days after the 17 inches of snow, another storm dumped eight more inches. That made the snow total 35 inches in ten days. The chickens thought for sure they would go stir crazy. They were all stuck inside. The snow was even too much for the bravest ones. Even the little silkie(who was the only baby who would let her little feet touch the snow) stayed inside.
After 4 days, the ground was still snow covered. But, the sun wwas shning, and they all had enough of being cooped up.
Essis stood at the gate squawking to come out.
EssieFree1.jpg

The human lady wasn't planning to let her out because she didn't want to have to rescue Essie from the snow. So, Essie walked along the fence looking for an escape. An escape would be easy, as the snow damaged most of the fence.
EssieFree2.jpg


The snow was deep around the fence, though, so the humanlady gave in and opened the gate. Essie was free!
EssieFree3.jpg


She followed the humanlady down the not-so-shoveled path, and was estatic to find a patch of soggy green grass!
EssieFree4.jpg


Everyone else was outside. The coops were empty. Even Hardy was outside. They were all walking acrss the snow, so happy to be outside they barely noticed their cold feet. When the humanlady brought treats, they all ran to the gate:
Feb12a.jpg


Having been cooped up with the big girls for almost 2 weeks, Hardy had learned some valuable lessons. He stood back and let the big girls eat the treats first.
Feb12b.jpg


And when they were done, they chose to stay near Hardy! Hardy had spent the last two weeks being kind and gentle with the big girls. He talked to them, and mostly encouraged them to talk about themselves ( because girls like that). He also admitted to them that he feared he could not live up to his father's reputation. The big girls assured Hardy that they didn't expect him to be exactly like his father. They just didn't want him to be nasty like his Uncle WeeMan. Hardy was a happy rooster!
Feb12c.jpg
Feb12d.jpg


Even though his feet were very cold
smile.png
 
Essie looks SO excited to see the patch of soggy green grass. You can tell Hardy is a happy chicken in those last photos, even though his feet are in the snow. What a good rooster he is becoming!! Handsome too!
 
I wanted to take a moment to wish the tex-mex babies a late happy "birthday" also. As you all know, skand hatched some of the Biggest Little Rooster babies, and when she needed to give her chickens away, WriterofWords stepped in annd took a bunch, including the BLR orphans.
She named the one girl GoodyTwoShoes, and the one boy is McSneaky. We identified another one recently as definately being one of the BLR kids- her son Steven's girl Moonshine
I also checked on McScreamy, and he is totally happy living with 8 girls of his very own. I was told he has a very gentle personality. I believe he is more like his dad than Hardy is.
Anyway, Happy Birthday McSneaky, GoodyTwoShoes and Moonshine!! And thank you Writer for taking such care of them!!

McSneaky:
1128091637b.jpg


Moonshine:............................................................... Moonshine and McSneaky- Look at his tall tail!!
5415_mooney_2.jpg
5415_mooney.jpg


On the left is McSneaky ( love his floppy combover). In the middle is White Boy (Goody's BF) and on the right is Miss GoodyTwoShoes:
5415_1117091759.jpg



Happy Valentine's day from Hardy, Laurel, Beebee and Essie!!!
HardyBoy.jpg
Teens.jpg
 
How could they be a YEAR old? That just doesn't seem possible, but time flies when your chickies are having fun! BeeBee looks like she is getting more feathers; thank goodness her neck won't be as cold in the winter weather!
 
I just found this story and loved what I have read so far had to stop at chapter 32 due to grand babies, but I am marking this one, I hope all is well and just wanted to say that your stories are great...
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom