Big Feet and Big Snacks

The Ladies seem more and more comfortable with staying out in the coop full time. At least, we haven't yet had anyone crawling into bed with us in the middle of the night.

Something we like to point out to visitors is how big their feet are getting, so we thought we'd post a picture. If we're expecting the Ladies to grow into these feet, they may be over three feet tall when this is all said and done.

The movie below shows the Ladies enjoying some of their favorite snacks, as the Rooster is enjoying his. It's a tough choice between Flavor Ice and cabbage worms, but everyone seemed happy with the way things played out.

Domvs Gallinvs

The Ladies have now spent two nights out in the coop, where they will be spending their lives for the foreseeable future.  Here's a close-up picture to show how big they're getting.  They've become more accustomed to eating cabbage worms from our hands, but they're still pretty skittish throughout the day.  At night, they're very docile, which does not bode well if some predator were to make it inside the coop.

Here's a picture of the nesting box now inside the coop.  The large metal drum hanging in the foreground is the water cooler, around which the Ladies gather to share stories and jokes and catch up on who got voted out on Top Chef.  The metal drum in the background is the feeder, currently attached to the wall.  As the Ladies reach their full height, these will both be moved up to eating/drinking level.

And that's about it for now.  The Ladies seem to enjoy roosting and peeping.  We're starting to take bets on how long before we get some real chicken noises.

Visitors!

The Ladies are still getting bigger, so we're pretty much just adding pictures when we have new visitors.  Tonight was definitely the most visitors we've had at one time: five adults and four children between the ages of one and six (the children, not the adults).

It took a bit of hemming and hawing before the children were brave enough to get right up next to them, but the Mother Hen provided several grubs and worms as bribes for the Ladies; she's such an amazing person with young children, and in general.  

 

As you can see in this second picture, the oldest visitor got pretty comfortable with the Ladies after the first couple grubs were down the hatch.

The only other news is a couple more changes to the coop.  The Ladies now have a shingled and sealed roof area over one third of their coop under which to avoid the summer rains.  Per the approved algorithm, the Ladies should be able to survive 65-degrees by now, but we're still looking at lows in the forties and fifties for at least the next week.  We're thinking by the end of May they'll be out in the coop permanently.

Eating Grubs!

The Ladies continue to make a daily trip out to the coop. We recently purchased their more grown-up feeder and waterer, both of which will hang from the top of the coop eventually.

A lot of the time in the coop is spent, as demonstrated in the picture at left, roosting. The Ladies seem quite content to express their gallinity by getting a few feet off the ground and snuggling.

The Ladies really are attached to one another. The Mother Hen often comments about how when you take two out to the coop, the two left behind start crying until everyone is reunited.

Now that we've got the technology down, we're trying to take more movies. This one shows the Ladies enjoying their favorite snack, cabbage worms picked off of the plants in the garden. This is about the only way the Ladies let us get this close to them.

A New Movie

The Ladies keep receiving visitors.  Today, a couple friends from church and the neighborhood stopped by.  We've begun carrying them to the coop as soon as it warms up in the morning and leaving them out there until it starts to get cool in the evening.  We hope this allows them to develop their highest sense of gallinity (a new word I'm trying to work into my daily conversation as much as possible).

Here's a picture of everyone roosting on the roost.  There was some preening going on as well as eating of the grubs picked off the broccoli plants in the front garden.  The do love those grubs, now that they've figured out what to do with them.

We've put together a new movie of the Ladies in the coop.  We caught them moving around quite a bit, so we hope this gives everyone a sense of their size and agility.

Hanging Outside

The camera is fixed and now we have new pictures to share.

This first picture is the last one taken before the Ladies moved outside to the back porch.  Big Sister has maintained this position for the last several weeks, splitting her attention between the comfort of the rug and a clear view of the nesting box.  If you notice, all the Ladies have their heads sticking out trying to get their momma's attention.

With the weather warming up the last couple of days, we've taken to escorting the Ladies to their coop to peck around for most of the day light hours.  You'll notice their increasing size as well as their roost in the background.

Finally, here's the Ladies' temporary location. It's like their teenagers with parents who are cool enough to let them live in that bedroom over the garage with its own outside access.  We did spend the first night with them on the porch.  You can kind of make out the Mother Hen through the window standing at the kitchen sink.

Moving On Up...

We don't have any pictures today because there's something wrong with our camera, but the Ladies look pretty much the same as they do in the pictures below.  They continue to grow and are now in the gangly teenager phase of life.  Their necks are too long and their feet are too big.  Actually, their feet are huge!

The nesting box has been moved from the den onto the back porch so as to harden the Ladies to the brutal summers and winters they can expect in Music City.  They're supposed to be kept at seventy degrees right now so they have the heat lamp on them over night.

The Ladies have made several more trips to the back yard, all under Big Sister's watchful eyes.  It was cute watching John try to get underneath Big Sister to stay warm, just like she would do with her biological mother.

The Rooster was not happy when he realized it now takes quite a bit of effort to wrangle all the Ladies back into the nesting box; with feet that big they can move pretty quickly.  It also doesn't help when they can squeeze through the lattice work around the bottom of the porch (or that the Mother Hen left him to accomplish this feat on his own).

When we get the camera running, we'll post some pictures of the new digs.  It should only be a couple more week before the Ladies are out in their permanent home.

Note: The Rooster and Mother Hen write a monthly column for our church newsletter about all things green.  We mentioned the Ladies in this month's submission: Saint B's Branch.

Getting Bigger...

It's been awhile since the last post.  In the intervening time, the Ladies have continued to grow and that's about the only change.

We've made a few more trips outside and Big Sister continues to herd them.  Here's a picture inside the house of Big Sister keeping an eye on things.

Here's more of a closeup of the Ladies.  They look pretty gangly right now, but we hope they'll be out on porch before too long.

We have a guest this weekend so hopefully we'll have some pictures of more visitors, though she's thus far refused to hold any of the Ladies.