Thursday, March 24, 2011

Woohoo coop!

Oh yeah! The Golden Girls are finally OUT of the house and in the coop! Woohoo! We finished enclosing the run last night and lugged the brooder and the girls out to the backyard. Handfuls of outraged girls were plucked from the cozy brooder and set on the torture field ground, and we had 12 frozen golden chicken statues. It was hilarious. You could move their wings, their heads, and they'd freeze in place. Play dough chickens. After a few minutes, a couple of the girls got brave and started pecking around. The others soon followed. They were especially happy when we put them in the coop with deep sawdust bedding. Very very happy, scratch wood chips everywhere, bury themselves up to their necks girls.

The new babies finally got moved to the Henry resistant brooder, and seem quite happy. My little "Betty Barred Rock" aka Lucky, the sole survivor of Henry's attack on Friday night, is the least skittish of the babies and will walk right up to me. She's not a fan of being held, but is content to perch on my finger. I can't wait until they all get a little bigger. The Golden Girls weren't big fans of attention until about the 2.5 week mark. The Ewok Ameraucanas are the loudest of the bunch, and give me dirty looks when I pick them up. The Andalusian and the Wyandotte are meek and cuddly. The Rhodie is indifferent, as are the Jersey Giants. The Welsummer is sure that I'm a vicious chick eating monster. If this mix of chicks is anything like the Buffs, they will love me after their first taste of yogurt. :)

The goslings are very sweet, except for the one I saved (Stupid). She can't seem to decide whether to be nice or be a pinchy bitey little jerk. They want to mouth everything. Blankets, towels, clothing, buttons, fingers, hair, earlobes, and LJ's goatee. We held the three of them on the couch last night while we watched tv. If you rest your hand on their back, they will snuggle down and doze off, except for Stupid. Took her a while to get the idea and relax. The two Toulouse don't have names yet, but I'm sure they'll be more creative than "Stupid". Hers may even change. We'll see how their personalities develop. Hell, one of them (Stupid) may end up named "Dinner" if they become seriously unfriendly. It's still early in the game. We'll see, we'll see. I do know that at only a few days old, these little buggers can already really bite, and they're only biting to mouth stuff right now. I'm not looking forward to intentional pinches. I bruise beautifully. Should be fun.

4 comments:

Paula said...

so guess what? now I can...

Rae said...

P- Stupid glitchy website. :) Ah well. Seems happy now.

Rachael said...

I would really love a pair of Toulouse Geese, but I'm afraid the coop is full at the moment. And based on my landlord's reaction to the new bunny hutch (however beautiful) that he would prefer that I not introduce more animals to the farm. However, their were three adorable little silkie peeps at tractor supply last night; I may have to give them a new home. We'll see.

Gina said...

I love to read about other's chicken fun!

Gina