Saturday, July 4, 2009

Upheaval

Tomorrow, my beautiful chickies will be 17 weeks old. And they are looking more like hens all the time.

This week has been a big week.

Daffodil, who has forever been at the bottom of the pecking order, has initiated and succeeded in a complete upheaval of the pecking order. Daffodil got her name because, frankly, she was always kind of stupid, even for a chicken. All the other chickens would rush out of the pen when i opened the door, and Daffodil would wander back and forth for several minutes, frantically trying to figure out how to get to where the rest of the chicks were - and completely missing the giant gaping hole where the door was not closed. It was pretty funny.

Thus she received the name, Daffodil, long for Daffy.

Well, after the raccoon attacks, in which we lost three of our chickens, Daffy, remained at the bottom, taking protection under the other birds a large percentage of the time. Daisy, has been at the top, protecting the other birds and defiantly showing me that she did not need to be "put" to bed at night, insisting upon putting herself there - and often taken a long time to do it.

Well, two things happened. One, it seemed important for me to show Daisy that she would have to let me be the boss, at least part of the time, which meant that i made her the subject of a thorough physical exam (which she has never submitted to), and i started putting her to bed first, whether she liked it or not. Second, i started giving them a lot more treats this week, in my attempt to beef up their very quickly growing little bodies.

They caught on to the treat thing all of a sudden. And now that they have caught on, neither James or i can ever go outside without being confronted by expectant chickens who will come running and flying from wherever they are to see what treat we might have for them. If it happens that we go outside and back in before they find us, we will hear the knocking of their little beaks on the screen door. It's funny. They're a little smarter than we give them credit for. And if i go to the mailbox or some other thing outside, they will all follow me like a pack of puppies all over the yard, like they are expecting me to produce magic chicken treats from my finger tips or something.

This has been lots of fun.

But in the course of the treat fun, Daffodil suddenly decided to establish her reign upon the tiny flock by giving warning pecks to the other birds if they try to get the select morsel (or the last morsel) she's going after. And a couple of times i saw her get up in that fighting stance like she was going to do something, but it was only a warning. Nothing happened, and they all seem to have settled nicely into their new hierarchy.

Incidentally, Daffy has always been the reddest faced of them all. And her face is getting redder (if that's a word) all the time. I am told that the early reddening is a sign that she will be the first to lay an egg. I am very excited.

No pictures today. Just a story.

5 comments:

  1. Wow ..... sounds exciting......

    How long did it take for them to start following you around, a week or just a couple of days?

    What are you giving for treats?

    I am so gonna do this.

    I will be nice when the chickens realize that I am the good guy, and not just the one who clips there wings and feeds them.

    You would think that they would realize that I AM THEIR MOTHER... but they do not.... My Buffs and the Austrolarps approach me curiously and let me pick them up....... but not when others are watching and doing the chicken freak out dance.

    It will be so nice when they get their new spacious home and are not so cramped?

    Which came first......the coop or the chickens? No brainer unless your name is EVA!

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  2. my newest yellow chick STEVE is starting to look a little blue grey like Molly...... maybe she is a younger blue cochin.

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  3. I might have three roosters in the bunch I purchased WITHOUT asking GOD first........ SEE ......see what being obsessive and compulsive and disobedient and impulsive does..... WILL EVERY ONE PLEASE LEARN FROM THIS MISTAKE SO THAT IT WILL NOT BE A WASTED MISTAKE.....

    Listen to HIM ..... check with HIM ..... pray without ceasing...... talk to HIM about EVERYTHING..... EVERYTHING...... plumbing in your kitchen... chickens on the side of the road.... trips to the ORPHANAGE....... eggs.... EVERYTHING...... HE cares and HE knows...

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  4. Yay, hip hip hooray for daffodil!! (the blond one in the bunch)

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