babies

two black australorps and two blue wheaten ameraucanas are now peeping sweetly in a large plastic bin in the once-upon-a-time laundry room (before we moved in), then storage, and now bathroom-in-progress in our bedroom.  the plan, as I've mentioned, was for them to be in the coop and then transition outdoors eventually in the big girls' old chicken tractor until everyone's ready to play nice.  but now it seems it will instead be our bedroom, and then the chicken tractor.

I am in love.  how could you not be, right?  I have even (twice now) picked up their tiny little poops with my fingers after they've gone on the floor the few times we've had them out and about.  like it's no big deal.  not real poop or anything gross like that.  oh no, this is just cute little itty-bitty chick poo.  yes, I wash my hands immediately(ish).  yes, I tell Claire not to do what she just watched mama do, because it's gross.  anyway.  that was maybe a bit more information than was necessary to share, but I figure why not just be honest.

one of the australorps is a bit of a brute.  but just a bit.  she's the only one with a little tail.  the two ameraucanas were just a day or two old when we got them, still with their little egg 'teeth'.  they have puffy cheeks and are a bit blonder than other ameraucanas, and supposedly will lay deep blue eggs.  one has a little stripe down her back and she is my favorite.  I mean, of course I don't have a favorite, but if I did, it'd be her.  like the chick version of dear old Margaret.  who by the way somehow got out this morning and walked down the street to a neighbor's driveway.  only to then be picked up by said neighbor and put in another neighbor's yard right across the street because, naturally, he assumed she was theirs and not ours.  not ours all the way down the street.  (by all the way I mean like two houses further away, but still... )  so, dear neighbor's daughter calls out to Claire and I as we are all out in our yards "Amanda, your chicken is in our yard!".  so we went to investigate and sure enough, there she was.  holding her own, eating their food, having a little hen play date of sorts.  she came when I called her and we grownups chatted a bit before I took her back home where she could eat her own food and poop on our deck instead of theirs.  neighborly chicken etiquette, you know?  and then Claire played with neighbor's daughter for a while, as she has come to love doing daily, multiple times daily if she can swing it.  they sometimes meet up in the yard of the vacant house in between our houses to pick clover leaves and old mustard flowers from over-wintered greens in the garden.  very soon (next week, likely) it will be rented out again.  really we'd like to buy it and have it be a vacation rental/where Mike's folks stay when they're in town.  or really, I guess we want them to buy it and we'll help out and all.  manage it and such.  decorate.  fun stuff.  but I'm not sure if that is in the cards.  maybe one day.  we shall see.  dreaming about it is fun.  and then the neighborhood kids could have a yard to play in that has no chicken poo.  imagine that.

but.  now we are going from four to eight hens, so that's twice the poo to clean up.  ah well.  they are cute and they earn their keep in eggs and entertainment.

weekending with amanda