Meet the Flock Roundup – July 2017

Suddenly, after celebrating her one-month birthday, Paula the Salmon Faverolles chick is starting to look like a teenage chicken. Look at the feathers sprouting all over her legs & her pretty salmon colored wing feathers!

Squawky the Speckled Sussex chick looks longingly out the window at the great wide world. A week after this shot, the chicks had their first opportunity to go outside!

Here's the sweet-faced Valerie the Golden Laced Wyandotte at a tad over a month old.

Here's a recent close-up of Marissa the Cream Legbar. Marissa's crest is brown rather than the expected dark grey, and because of that, she doesn't meet the Standard of Perfection for her breed and would not place well at a show. I think that Marissa herself doesn't care a bit about this "flaw" and probably even thinks that it's attractive. I totally agree!

What's better than an afternoon snooze on a hot July day? "Nothing at all," says Darcy Barred Rock, "Nothing at all!"

Moe the Salmon Faverolles chick hangs out outdoors like a pro – a mere week after the chicks first ventured outside. "Let me pose with my back facing the camera!" she suggests, "That way everybody can see my brand new, pretty salmon colored feathers!"

Valerie the Golden Laced Wyandotte likes to spend her day outdoors in the chicken gazebo. She says, "Look at how grown-up I look! My baby fuzz is all gone!"

Courtney the Silkie sez: "Ha ha! Watch this! If I look up long enough I'll make Willow look up!"

Courtney adds "Now watch me make Willow look down! Haw! Braaak!"

Here's Paula the Salmon Faverolles chick posing at the end of the chick tunnel.

Valerie the Golden Laced Wyandotte "helps me do my morning chores".

No, I didn’t say I had a chip on my shoulder.  That was “chick”.  I have a chick on my shoulder. (Valerie again.) 

Betty the Easter Egger sez, "They tell me my fancy new John Deere roost can also be used as a mower! Who knew?!"

Sadly, Emily the Silkie hen has passed on after being struck down in her prime by a sudden and vicious case of flystrike. Emily was as personable and adorable as Silkie hens can be. While many chickens are not comfortable being handled, Emily actually enjoyed being snuggled and would make noises that I swear were her version of purring. She was one chicken that I knew I could pick up and place into the eager arms of young children--she seemed to understand that these small humans were not experienced with handling chickens, and she was OK with that. Emily was and will continue to be one of the four chickens whose likenesses appear in the chicken portrait that serves as the profile picture for this blog's Facebook page. She was a special hen and I will miss her always.