We’re Eleven Weeks Old!

 

Where has the time gone? How can it be that our first chicks born here at Laughing Orca Ranch could now be almost 3 months old?

Our weather warmed up a bit the past couple days, so I chose to sit outside in the coop with our chickens on Friday afternoon. I haven’t done that for a while and it sure was nice just sitting there among my feathered friends enjoying them pecking,

preening,

(Looks a little like Rolkur, doesn’t it?)

fluffing,

eating,

and even sleeping.

Many of them came over to be petted, to peck at my boots and clothes and to have their pictures taken. It is so much fun for me to photograph our chickens.

 

(Yes, those are snowman jammies and leopard muck boots. Doesn’t everyone wear items like these for farm duties?)

They have the most interesting faces and expressions at times.

 

And I love their many feather colors, shapes and patterns. (Phyllis Diller seems to be having a bad hair day)

 

Watching the babies is also very entertaining.

Seeing how they are much more active in the flock than the older chickens, and how well they’ve integrated themselves into the flock is fascinating to me.

Mrs. Cotton still spends time with her babies, but is a lot less patient with them and doesn’t defend them from the other chickens or even me.

 

She seems to have let her chicks leave the nest with no regrets.

And her chicks seem be enjoying their independence and newfound places within the flock.

It’s also very interesting to see how their Papa, Sid Vicious relates to them, and they to him. He is very tolerant  and protective of them already and he is often standing with them or nearby.

I’m glad they are looking more and more like Sid, because even though I think the SIlkie chickens are very pretty and cute with all their soft fluff, Sid is my favorite and is the most eye-catching and photographic of all of our chickens.

(I call him chicken coop eye-candy)

While he’s not an affectionate roo with me, he is very respectful of me (especially after that one and only time he tried to attack me last Spring, for holding one if his…..my hens, and he ended up airborne. A batter could have ran a homerun after my pitch). But my handsome boy doesn’t seem to hold any grudges and he’ll even come hang out near me and will pose endlessly for the camera. Yeh, Sid’s a Camera Ham. (or is that camera fowl?).

Sometimes I’ll catch him checking out his shadow, probably to be sure each top feather is in it’s place.

His kids take after their Dad, too.

I can definitely see that at least two of them have Ameracauana (Easter Eggers) Mothers, too.

 

(Oh man! That photo cracks me up!)

This is Jenna’s Ameracauna hen, Angelina Ballerina. I just love those cheek fluffs.

 

And all three of them have the Polish fluff heads, too.

 

I am pretty positive that this chick is a rooster. He resembles his Daddy so much. And he is already quite handsome.

 

But I’m not 100% sure this one is a roo. It has the most gold color of all three chicks. Quite flashy. It’s probably a roo. I’m still going to hold out hope on this one, though, at least until it belts out it’s first crow.

But this chick I feel pretty confidant is a hen. She is mostly black with only a few flecks of gold.

I’m still not sure who her Mama might be. It will be interesting to see what color her eggs turn out to be.

Like this batch of eggs that some of our hens have given this week. Our Welsumer hens are reliably laying those dark chocolate eggs. The smaller cream colored eggs are being produced by Mrs. Cotton, the Japanese Silkie. And the small white egg is a product of Phyllis Diller our Buff-laced Polish hen. And the large pink-tinted egg was laid by Myrtle one of our Ameracauna (Easter Egger) hens.

And finally, the odd colored, army-green eggs with “chocolate chip” speckles are being laid by our Cuckoo Marans hen.

 

As I was sitting outside among my chickens, in the warmth of the sunshine, a huge booming and vibrating was heard in the sky above us. We sometimes have military aircraft fly over our house and property from Kirtland AFB, and they are often quite low. But these helicopters were the lowest by far. I can’t imagine they were more than a couple hundred feet above the ground. The air and ground vibrated as they flew overhead.

My time outside with the chickens ended as soon as the sun moved westward and dropped behind the trees that surround the coop. Without the sun, the temperature felt much colder than 30 degrees. But it sure was nice while it lasted.

 

Sid Vicious even regaled me with one of his best crows on my way out the coop gate.

 

Thanks for making me feel at home, my feathered friends. Good night. Sleep Tight.

   

The End…………