Ze Chickies

I so enjoy our chickens. We all do, really. Leah loves to stand outside their pen and watch them and she always talks to them in a high squeaky voice when she sees them moving around. Bryn, the chicken-lovah-4-life is the most successful of us at picking them up. She is very determined and has absolutely no fear. Addison enjoys collecting their feathers and drawing chickens and roosters.

Our little group, although pea-brained and skittish for the most part, is definitely beautiful. I love to just look at them. Their feathers are so pretty, especially in the sunlight. Here's the view every morning when we bring their food.

And an introduction to each one, along with the much asked-after names:

This is Roaster. Named by Addison, and aptly so, because he is a rooster (well, we're 97% sure). At the first sign of crowing we will be roasting Roaster. Until then, he's very much enjoying his place as alpha male of the group.

 This is Blue. Addison insists it's actually Blue-Green, because it's the easter egger and will lay blue or green eggs someday, but it's Blue. I got to name it. If I ever had a dog I'd want to name it Blue. In the meantime, a chicken will do.

Blue's neck feathers are very interesting. It's fun to watch her develop because she's definitely built differently from the others.

And here we have Brownie. She's the new Baby. Definitely the most docile and friendly of the bunch, and also the smallest and slowest to develop. Bryn loves to hold her.

This is Goldie.

This is also Goldie, because we can't tell them apart. In fact, I'm not entirely sure these two pictures are of different chickens. One is a little bigger than the other one, but when they're running around there's no way to tell. We need to tie a little bell around one of their necks or something.

 Big Red. We're beginning to suspect that Big Red is actually a rooster. He's big, and has got a pretty impressive comb already, and the black feathers around his neck and in his tail are actually green when the sun shines on them. They're really beautiful. He's somewhat aggressive as well. One day Leah and I were chilling in the pen feeding the chickens some old spinach. Big Red kept coming over and getting in our business and I kept shooing her away. Repeat four or five times or so, and then she snatched up Leah's graham cracker right from her hand and ran away with it. Luckily I have reflexes like a cat and was able to swat Big Red, retrieve the cracker, and comfort poor traumatized Leah all in the blink of an eye. Anyway, we've got our eye on this one. It might be a double roasting, in which case you're all invited.

And last, but not least we have Parrot. Also named by Addison. Parrot is rather submissive around the other chickens, especially Roaster, but she is darn hard to catch. And she surprised us last week by jumping up and biting Bryn (who was standing and holding Brownie) right under the eye! Bryn claims it was unprovoked, but we weren't out there to witness it, so you never know.

I tried to get a picture of the damage (it's right under her right eye), but it's hard to see. She's cute, either way.