The Story of the Rasberry Hill House Chickens

[Fluffballs]

The story begins here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/675922/welcome-home-chicks-warning-pic-heavy

Chapter 1- Popcorn (Well, it could be called chapter 3 or 4 if you include the other thread, but I'll call it 1 )

Two humans, the smaller ones, walked towards the coop, holding something in their hands. Miss. Henny, or Henrietta, the mother chicken sat beneath The Safe Box with the eight chicks sleeping under her. One of the humans leaned forward and tossed a funny white thing towards Miss Henny, but she just looked at it. Apparently it didn't look too appealing. An Australorp/ Buff Orp. mix, nicknamed Mr. Curious popped his head out from under her wing. It looked interesting, but if Mama didn't eat it, he figured it wasn't worth the bother getting out from under her warm body. Then, one of the humans, here called UnderHisWings, opened the door of the makeshift coop and walked in, holding more of the funny white stuff. She held it out to the group, but no one was interested. After waiting a bit, the humans made some funny noises that sounded like this- "Do you think we could take the box off?" asked the one outside the coop, known as Fluffballs. "I think so," said UnderHisWings, "they didn't seem too bothered by it last time." "Okay..." said the other, reluctantly picking the box up and moving it over a bit. Well, that didn't make much difference to the chicks or Miss Henny. The chicks were too comfortable and warm, and Henrietta wouldn't leave her chicks. The humans sat there for a little while, but soon got bored. The one called Fluffballs is quite strange. Trying to get the chicks or hen's attention, she threw bits of popcorn towards the mass of feathers and fuzz. A few popped their heads out, but didn't try any. Fluffballs must have been getting very bored, because then she started throwing popcorn pieces all over the coop. That still doesn't make it any more tempting to the chicks. Eventually, UnderHisWings coaxed Miss Henny to try some. "Hmmm," thought Miss Henny, "this actually is quite good!" So she had a little more. "Oh!" thought the chicks, "it must be good, Mama's eating it!" so some ran over to UnderHisWings hand and tried some of the funny food. Other chicks found some pieces that Fluffballs had thrown towards were they had been. They ran around with little popcorn pieces in their beaks. "I have food! I have food!" they announced. Well then they tried to eat the food. Hmm. That was interesting. The chicks by UnderHisWings' hands didn't have a problem, because she had broken up the popcorn into small pieces. But the pieces Abigail had thrown were quite different. They were large, so they needed to be broken. "Okay," thought the chick Fluffballs calls Gertie, "I'll just scratch it against the ground and it will break." Well, that's the problem with the funny white stuff called popcorn- it doesn't break real well. She continued to announce her possession of food, and that is what actually helped her find a way to break it. The other chicks ran up and pecked pieces of it off. Now she only held a small piece. Yum! It tasted good. The chicks and Miss Henny ran around finding the food for a time, and then settled down a bit. A while later though, the chicks were exploring their coop and lo and behold! More popcorn! The feeding frenzy began again, until at last the chicks settled down, and happy.

This is the "coop" as you see it when you come through the door. Above the wooden panel you see is a place where the Hands can come in and give treats to the chicks. I the corner is the Safe Box.

In the Safe Box!

 

[UnderHisWings]

You adorable little chickies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SuperChickenDude327]

Must have more!

 

[Fluffballs]

Okay.... one more story, coming right up!

 

[UnderHisWings]

When...???

 

[Fluffballs]

Chapter II- The Chicks vs. The Outdoors
(Warning- this edition contains many pictures)
It has been another eventful day at the Rasberry Hill Chicken Coop. At first, though, it wasn't very eventful. First, those huge humans were late in opening the big roll-up door, known to them as a garage door. Then, they neglected the chickies all morning and even some of the afternoon! The chickies suspected that they had been taken away in the Huge-Rolling-Box-That-Transported-Chicks. Well, finally, the people came back. And not only did they come back, but they brought treats with them! One brought a really yummy mix of grains and corn. Guess what- Feeding Frenzy!!!! Unfortunately, all the tasty stuff disappeared really quickly! The humans talked in their funny language again and then walked out of the coop and put some funny green stuff outside of the coop. The chicks wondered what that was for. Then the small humans opened the sliding door. So what? Mommy was scratching the cardboard. Chicks scratch the cardboard. Well, the humans weren't crazy about that attitude, so one picked up Mr. Curious and brought him out onto the grass. "What's that for?" thought Mr. Curious. He didn't think grass was any better than Mommy, so he ran back to her. The little humans just didn't get it. They tried again! What are those humans thinking? Because you take the chicks out twice, grass is more appealing? Nope. Mommy still is way better. Those people apparently just had to move the chicks out for some reason. Who knows what that reason was. So they sort of shooed the chickens out. Now the chicks really didn't like that, but there were the strange people running from behind them. Oh! Mommy's out here too! It must be worth looking at then!

(This is the coop as seen from the open garage door. Yes, I'm afraid it's quite a mess as Miss Henny likes scratching the cardboard up...

)

Exploring the new place with Mommy.

Yes indeed, there was much to explore, and many strange Things. Why there was this fine brown stuff called Dirt. And other things like Moss, and Wire, and Grass. And then Mommy found a place to dust bathe. Such excitement!


Then came perhaps the worst part of the expedition. The humans kept picking the chicks up and clicking a little Black Box at them. This is the result of those awful times-

Figuring out this dirt thing.


My favorite chick- Gertie! (Or at least that's what I'm calling her for now)

"I have a worm!!!!"

Little Guy, or Baby. He's Mama's cuddle boy. (or girl! )

Oh yeah, and the humans kept trying to put the poor chicks in a round, stick-y thing. Like, what's that for???


I don't think the chicks will like the black clicky box after today...

Mr. Curious. If he turns out to be a she (which is what we hope for!) we might call her Madame Curi

The safest place of all, Mommy's back.

Now two are on for the ride!

Ah, yes, the full view of the coop and run- sort of.

Isn't it just a wonderful feeling to have bunches of little chickies gathered around your treat-filled hand?

So after the great time of exploring, and not so great time of Black Box clicking, things got even worse. The small humans carried chicks over two by two into the coop. They couldn't see Mommy! The world was falling apart! "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" More of there brothers and sisters were put in, but that alone would not comfort their Mommy-less souls. "Cheeeeeeep!!!!" Then came Mommy. "Mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!" And they happily settled down again in their coop- scratching around, drinking water, kicking pine shavings into food and water containers, and all those other chicky things. Ah, this was one wonderful day.

Note: The small humans saw a bobcat a bit later in the day. EEEEEPP!

 

[UnderHisWings]

Chapter 3- Mommy Goes Outside (I'm taking over for Flufff, since she has no creative juice right now. Hopefully I can entertain you just as well- feel free to comment

)

Today, the little humans came back and opened the coop to the outside run. "Oh no," thought the chicks, "they're going to pick us up again like they did yesterday." But the funny people didn't. They just stayed around and didn't really watch the chicks. But since mommy didn't go out, it must not be interesting, so the chicks stayed inside the coop. But when mommy did wander outside, so did the chickies. And do you know what? It actually was very interesting- scratching the ground, stumbling over bumps, finding food, and exploring! Then Miss Henny (mommy) did something strange. She made a little hole, and kept rolling around and fluffing her feathers. Of course, she had done that yesterday, but the chicks still had forgotten that and asked themselves "What on earth iss that for?" Baby Boy couldn't figure out why Mama would rather do that instead of let him sit on her back.

What is she doing?

Oh, that black clicky box had a lot of work today , much to the chick's chagrin

(But I won't post too many

)

Well, Baby Boy did get to sit on Mommy's back

And so did Lacy, my favorite chick

Here's Lacy again-not a great pic, but at least now you can see why she's called Lacy...

Well, all to soon, Mama heard some crows and decided to take her brood back to the coop. The little humans shut the coop up, but the one who liked picking Lacy up didn't close it very well, so while the people were gone, Mama Hen and two chickies walked through the hole... and couldn't find out how to get out! In a desperate attempt, the two chicks wiggled their way through the wire, and huddled in an outside corner of the coop, afraid. They were out in the open, Mama was outside in the run, and their brothers and sisters were in the coop. But then came the culprit human, who was frightened and shocked to see her pets outside of their home. Hearing a crow caw from some trees, horrible fears crowded her mind, for she could not see the other six chicks who were huddled under the safe box. Quickly, she scooped up the two chicks and dropped them in the coop. Mama hen soon followed. Praying a quick prayer, she lifted up the" safe box", and counted one, two, three, four, five, six chicks. Just to make sure, she counted again- they were all there! The chickies later got to enjoy more time outside- and not enjoy being picked up (unless the humans had food with them- then it was okay). Now the chickies are all settled down under mommy, tired from their exited day.


Here, Fluffballs has made a "kick-proof board" to help keep the pine shavings that Mommy kicks up off of the food

Safe under Mommy!!!!!

 

[Fluffballs]

Chapter 4-

Today the chicks have been trying out new foods. First, when they were outside, Mommy dug up some Dirt and guess what was in the Dirt? Bugs! And boy do Bugs taste good! Also, Mr. Curious couldn't figure out how to eat a cinder block. Like, why wouldn't the little gray pieces of food come off? Miss Henny has the same problem with my ring. It looks so tasty, but it doesn't break! Neither do the moles on my finger. Huh.

One other thing they actually did eat. Bird Seed. Quite a bit of birdseed had fallen out of a box into their run, so when they were let out, there was much eating to be done! In fact, there was so much that there was still more when they were let out in the evening. But it doesn't seem like chicks mind more food, even when their little crops are full. Today, the chicks also got much handling. The small humans kept picking them up and holding them in their laps for awhile. The little humans were very happy when some of the chicks fell asleep in there laps for a bit. Humans are funny; why, the chicks knew that they might get out of the people's laps if they looked cute for long enough! Strangely, (sarcasm alert!) the clicky box got much work today.It clicked at each of the chicks. The humans called it a Photo Shoot. The chicks hope that these "Photo Shoots" don't happen every day.


This is Lacy. More recently she's been called Little Lady Liberty as she tends to not like being held. We think of her making a Chick's Rights cry when she peeps when we're holding her. "Freedom to scratch in the dirt, Freedom to run around, Freedom from the tyrants' hands!!!" But the "tyrants" keep holding her.

Mr. Curious. His name sort of describe's him. But he also like's riding on Mommy's back.

The twins, Largo and Goldie. We had named one "Largo" because his wings had been longer than all the other chicks' ("Largo" means "long" in Spanish). But than Goldie's wings grew the same length, and now they look almost exactly alike.

Meet Bullseye, named for the dot on his head, which you can't really see in this pic. He's sort of scared of humans right now, that's why he's hunkered down in the picture. I think that he thinks," if I freeze, they won't see me." Sorry, little guy, that's why we pointed the black box at you, so that people on BYC could see you.

Gertie! The cutest little chick of the bunch! (imo ) She's also an excellent worm hunter. On her first day outdoors, she found two worms! Good job, Gertie!

Little Guy, Baby Bug, Baby, etc. You've already met him. Little cutie!

The two little humans are pretty sure this is Pig Pen. Yes, he was named after the Peanuts character who was always dirty, because he is just the same! Sadly, it's the only pic the people got of him, but at least it shows his dirty feet! XD
So those are are chicks! I should have gotten a few pics of Henrietta, but she doesn't exactly like being picked up. "SQUACKKKKKK!!!" Neither do the chicks. "Peep!!! Mommy!!!!" So, we don't really mess with Mommy.

Note: Just because we call some "he" or "she", doesn't mean that they are a boy or girl. We just call them that. Actually we hope there all girls, but that's unlikely... *sigh*.....

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aw, they're so cute! Do I spy some mini-beards in the crowd? And I just love how Little Guy / Baby Bug / Baby / etc. looks. So handsome!

 

[Fluffballs]

Yes! Lacy and Gertie have little muff/beards! So cute!