Aw, thank you Fatimetta! Your kindness truly made me smile. Right now we have six girls and one unsure— Chickie Minaj. She’s the boss hen... or we at least hope she’s a hen, because if she isn’t we have to get rid of her. We aren’t really supposed to have chickens because our township is... well, strict, to put it lightly. She chases around Clementine mostly, but when she does she often tries to mount her. They’re only 4.5 months. If you looked at Chickie, I’m sure you’d say, oh for sure that’s a boy. But she’s got no spur growth, no curly tail feathers, and tiny wattles. So I’m keeping on hoping she’s a she. We all love her. She’s very much a coop dictator but for all her nitpicking she’s never caused serious injury. She’s surprisingly much more benevolent when they’re in their run, which is admittedly too small for all seven. Not to worry, we’re gonna be building an expansion this weekend that should double the size and enable them to fly! Princess Laya flies like there’s no tomorrow. I’m quite tall and she still can lift off from the ground, fly above my head, and then go perhaps 15-20 feet before landing. It’s insane. We jokingly attribute her flying ability to her absurd feather pants.
Jsr, so sorry about the losses! However, once fall comes around we’re actually planning on using sand in the run! Our spring and summer seasons are so ghastly wet, their run floods constantly, and pine shavings just aren’t cutting it. I want to use pelleted bedding in the coop, but the problem is nesting... Goose laid another egg today right next to her first one (she announced it so loudly all of us charged outside. She almost immediately shut up when we got out there) and because she was so noisy about it we were able to feel it still warm. I love when eggs are warm from being freshly laid or sat on, something about it makes me so happy. Anyway, nesting. Goose is very fond of constant renovations to her new nesting area, and I know thats common behavior. I want the coop cleanings to be easier (pine shavings are driving me nuts) but I also don’t want to discourage laying by not having any fun material to create nests with. Any thoughts, anyone?
The girls are so good at making me feel so guilty... as soon as we ran out to see if Goose was making a false alarm (she had been doing the egg song a couple weeks before she laid her first) or not, they all startling growling and grumbling, following us around the edges of their run and begging to go outside. No little ladies! You must be dewormed! I’m so sorry!
When we were checking out the new egg, Princess Laya ran up into the coop and tried to hop out through the open door. Ohh, Princess.
Please keep us updated! Your flock is so charming! Who turned out to be boys/girls? Were you able to keep them anways?
