Saturday, April 21, 2012

Day 3 & 4: recipe for fresh eggs

These girls are some fast growing chicks! Well, everyone but little Joanie. By day 3 Joanie was finally eating and drinking on her own, but she is clearly still hobbling around and about a 1/3 of the size of her box buddies. I hate to write it, but I think the inevitable is upon us. 

By day 3 I could surely smell and see the box already needed a thorough cleaning. It's a different smell, not so unpleasant like a kitty litter box, but definitely a smell you don't want blowing into your family room from the garage door! Luckily, day 3 I had four  little friends coming to play in the morning and they were pretty excited about all the chirping coming from the garage. After setting some ground rules with the little hand people, I put them to work! The girls got placed in a holding box and one boy and one girl were put on "heating" duty, aka hold the heat lamp over the box while the rest of us quickly clean out and haul them back. The kids moved fast and it was clean in about 7 minutes. Like any woman who likes to walk into a clean home when she returns from a trip, these gals were very pleased to explore the new arrangements made for them. See below for what day 3 and 4 have brought us here at this homestead!

 Boys cleaning fast. Austin took the job seriously, as you can see.

 The holding box...their vacation :)

 Doing a great job keeping the girls warm while in transition. 

 To sit and watch... these chicks are really amusing at times. They are developing little personalities and act quite quirky. Even more so then the 2 legged people that live here. The girls will run ramped in circles and in 0.5 seconds fall flat on their face and fall asleep. Jaxon has asked me more then once..."did she just die"? It's very funny to witness and some days I feel a little like them myself, running in circles and able to fall asleep in that short amount of time when my face hits the pillow!

 Ah, fresh water and food. We be sure to offer them fresh condiments twice a day and every time they know it's coming. Once we set the fresh items down they scurry over to get the first bites! (and how about that fancy $3 feeder. :)

 Finally, day four we really decided on names. The kids had been going back and forth since day one on a variety of names. Some have stuck, but a few we had to change it up. I promised them our Aunt Heather and good friend Becky and recently deceased grandma Juanita did NOT want to have a chicken named after them. They weren't convinced and I had to be very persistent that the real Heather's and Becky's and grandma Juanita's would rather keep their name sharing for a future granddaughter or something like that :) I put a little speck of finger nail polish on a few to help us tell the difference and as you can see, with Dad's help, the names will not disappoint as they grow into these respectful chicken names! I had two little friends who came to visit ask which one was Henny Penny, so I insisted we name a red one after the favorite book character. Other then that, I really like the sound of Betty White and Darla :)

 Jaxon has some quick hands, but even these gals can out run him by day 4! I can not believe how fast they grow! We'll be dishing out fresh egg omelets in no time!

 The girls after some playing time with the little people here. Usually I sneak out to check on them after they have been handled for a bit. Twice now I have quietly walked into the garage and found them all sound asleep in a perfect half circle shape. I think their visitors wipe them out, but I can't complain about 7 girls taking good naps in this house!

 Joanie, Henny Penny, Rhonda

 Casper and Darla

A room full of little people loving on the girls. Makes my heart smile :)

4 comments:

  1. Can't wait to meet them tomorrow! Love the daily updates!!!

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  2. Oh, Jess... this seriously cracks me up. And I'm assuming that they wanted to name one after me? Should I be honored??? :) Hilarious. What fun all these kids will have watching them grow!! I need to call and schedule a visit soon!

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    1. Becky- Yes, you were our "Becky" and I promised them Boaz's mom did NOT want to have a chicken named after here. I also couldn't see myself yelling "Shoo Becky" to my chickens this summer in the yard!! ha! :-)

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  3. Oh my! I LOVE this idea, Jess! How cool is it all the wonderful things about nature you are teaching your boys! And I sure hope you are planning on selling those farm fresh eggs! Put my on your customer list! :)

    And the name Henny Penny rocks!

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