Sunday, April 11, 2010

Here, Chick Chick Chicks!

17 days ago, Ivy (my temporary roommate) and I bought impulse chickens. Seven little bantams, though one died just about as soon as we got them home (fun fact: pick chicks that are lively and active, NOT chicks that are "all sleepy and adorable"). We divvied them up, and each named three.



There were two yellows, Hobbit and Soup. Two black and whites, Tweasel and Tiberius. One white, Pie, and one silver, Sparklesnatch (if you think the names are odd, go check out the Lazy, Stupid and Godless group on Ravelry. It's awesome).

On the first day, they were fluffy and adorable.


Hobbit



Soup



Tweasel



Tiberius



Pie



Sparklesnatch


By day 4, their wing feathers were coming in, and we'd started to see more of their personality. Sparklesnatch, despite being the smallest of the group, had established herself as Top Chicken. Pie was the sweetie, and had taken a particular shine to another friend of ours, Ella, so much so that by the end of the week we'd decided that Pie was going to live out her life as Ella's house chicken.


Hobbit



Soup



Tweasel



Tiberius



Pie



Sparklesnatch


On day 7, I went to the purina store to get more supplies, and a seventh baby bantam came home and was dubbed Dinner.


Dinner


We introduced the chicks to Heed. He sniffed briefly, then ran away like a scared little bitch.


Hobbit and Heed


By this point, everyone's wings were coming in well.


Sparklesnatch


Then, as it tends to do, a bunch of time passed at once. I spent a couple of days helping to bottle feed baby goats up at Girlface's farm (Dos was another girl, Tres and Quatro were boys), a couple of days working, a couple of days recovering. Next thing I knew, it was day 17, and I hadn't photographed the babies in over a week. Everyone's wing feathers are in, their tiny feathery feet are fluffier than ever, and their combs are coming in. We even had to clip their flight feathers, to keep them from launching themselves into the air whenever we took them out to play with.


Dinner


Still the smallest, of course, at 10 days old. She's not quite a snuggler, yet, but she's holding her own in the Grand Chicken Hierarchy.


Hobbit


Hobbit has the most impressive comb so far. You can see all the little ridges and everything.


Soup


Hobbit's turned brown! She was already the darker of the two yellow chicks, and her wing feathers are brown with white edges.


Tweasel


Tweasel and Tiberius are much easier to tell apart now - Tweasel is the one with the comb!


Tiberius


Tiberius is the next sweetest chicken, after Pie. I'm trying to feed him from my hand every day and snuggle on him, but he's not exactly thrilled about it.


Pie


Pie is sweet as can be around Ella, but is really a one-woman bird. She doesn't care much for me.


Sparklesnatch


You might notice that Sparklesnatch is a lot leaner than the rest of the babies, and that her tail is longer. Because of this, we're thinking that she might actually be a he... but we're still calling him Sparklesnatch.