285 1/4 Martin Drive was ready and waiting when the Ladies arrived on September 19th.
It surprised me a little that they seemed perfectly comfortable, squashed in together, in a cardboard box for delivery. That's because I had a LOT to learn about chickens!
Firstly, I want to thank the Shields Family for trusting us with the Ladies. Their friendly little chickens are now our friendly little chickens and it didn't take long for everyone to adjust.
I made every effort to get the Ladies to love me on day one. But I wasn't the only one. Wrigley was super interested and dare I say, beguiled by them. Hard to say if he was surprised they had taken over his playhouse, or if he felt he had been preparing for this moment! Safe to say he had made no connection between what was for dinner and these delightful creatures, though.
Rusty is a different story. Rusty approached with caution and used all his (weak) stalking skills to get close to them in the coop. When one of the Ladies dared to cluck at him, he high-tailed it out of the yard and now, 2 weeks later, it is rare for him to come within 15 feet of a chicken.
The next week was spent building trust and getting to know them. Ironically, the way to a chickens heart, is apparently through it's stomach. I used an abundance of peaches as an excuse to hand feed the Ladies some fruit each morning.
Yes, they do have names and now seems like a good time to introduce you formally:
Meatball : A dark beauty. She is full of courage and had a slightly naughty sense of humor. This food lovin' gal is always the ringleader and life of the party. But it's for her food motivation that Meatball was recently voted "most likely to chase the ice cream truck".
Hazel : Caramel colored with a necklace of darker feathers, Hazel is a beautiful gal who arrived with social graces too. Her friends voted her "most likely to be prom queen" and she can frequently be found lounging in a shallow hole, taking in some sun and preening herself.
Buttercup : She's a natural beauty inside and out. Buttercup will always wait her turn in line and never has anything bad to say about a friend. She has some definite mom-qualities and was voted "most likely to work for a charitable organization" by her peers.
Jade : In a group, she's all timid and shy. Get her alone and she has a voice that makes you smile and exotic looks that turn heads. Jade disappears into the background until suddenly she doesn't and for this reason she was voted "most likely to sing in the choir".
Ok, you may have noticed that a number of these pics feature chickens no longer in a coop. 'Tis true! In an authentic attempt at anthropomorphizing the Ladies, I felt they needed more space to move, run and play in. The coop is small and I just couldn't wrap my head around them being happy while all bunched up - despite all the research indicating that chicken don't need much space - or want it.
After a week or so in the coop, I let them into the yard for the first time. Now confident that they knew where home was. These are the first pics of them in our yard. The cats watched from inside... utterly bewildered.
The Ladies couldn't not have been more relaxed around the cats! They poked around lazily, took naps on the grass and mulch, meandered back and forth inside and outside the coop.
It surprised to me learn after doing his for several days that the Ladies have a rhythm. They are active, curious and hungry in the early to mid morning, then nap (sometimes inside the coop) around noon, then perk up again for late afternoon to forage and take walks - mostly in a group.
And the end of the story is this... days of watching these Ladies in the yard and I have to say I have learned a lot. Chickens really do like small spaces. Given every opportunity to roam and spread out, they ultimately find comfort in returning to the coop or very nearby. They crowd in together and tend to occupy the same 4 square feet.
Will this stop me anthropomorphizing with my pets again in the future? Hell no! LOL
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