The Girls Come Home to Roost

I knew, what I was getting into.

It isn't like I haven't done this before.

I know all about the work involved, the SMELL involved, and the commitment required.

So we're going to call it informed idiocy that I took my children to the local feed store to see the new arrivals.

And that, was all she wrote, folks.

I mean, please.

Technicolor chicks for pity's sake.

Cry salmonella and bleach wipes all you want. Remind me about the daily cleaning of the cage and the fear each morning that you'll wake to find that one's bit the dust. Go on ahead and say that they are only little for a short while, but they are big, stinking, eating, pecking, squawking bitties for decades. I know!

Trust me though, all reason goes straight out the window when you hold one, all feathers and heartbeat.

How could I not bring some home?

Six to be exact, two for each little Papa.

Luke has Hazel (the blue one) and Pearl (the lighter striped one)
James has Spike (the green one) and Tiger (the darker striped one)
Ryder has Maybelle (yellow) and Rosemary (orange)

We will keep them here at our house until they are big enough to go to Nana and Grumpy's ranch, where they will roam about, battling wild turkeys for dibs on grasshoppers.

Their little personalities are already shining through. Some are calm, some quite sassy. Some are real go getters and some are more the lounging type.

We take them out to the yard to peck and twitter a few times a day. They enjoy this immensely. They run as fast as their toothpick legs will carry them, argue over ants and peep their fool heads off if they find themselves far from their sisters.

They seem to think that Luke is the head hen. They follow him around, flapping and peeping like all get out.

After a frolic in the grass, they get plumb wore out. They will all of a sudden just stand stock still and close their eyes. So, we put them back in their case, and they clump together in one fuzzy little ball for a nap under the heat lamp.

It's like having newborns again. Eat, exercise, sleep, repeat.

In case you're wondering, as I did, the color comes from a natural vegetable dye. It will last for a couple of weeks. Those that are colored are kind of a Heinz 57 breed. The natural colored ones are Ameraucanas, which lay the pretty green and blue eggs.

So, I guess I can say in earnest now that we here at Blue Yonder have taken up poultry farming. Heaven help us.