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Birds of a Feather

One of the guys I work with got some baby chicks about a month ago. Periodically he mentions how cute they are and what they are doing.

About a week ago, I had to run to IFA for some garden stuff and saw the darling little baby chickens. I've been thinking about them all week long since. Which lead to Saturday's purchase of three little chicks: a black, a golden and a yellow. And they cheep, cheep, cheep all the time.

As of yet they are nameless. If Robbie has his way, they will be Bob, Bob the Builder, and Tractor Something-or-other. Not quite what I had in mind - maybe something more like Huey, Dewey and Louie or Larry, Curly and Moe or Spade, Ace, and Joker or Obsidian, Ocher, and Amber/Buff/Citrine/Occamy/Olio or Raven, Penny and Duckling.

The salesman at IFA said their chickens pretty much only lay brown or white. All three should be female, so (if all goes well) the hens should start laying eggs when they are 6 months old. The golden and black chickens should lay brown eggs and the yellow one should lay white.

Chicken earlobe colors are supposed to indicate the color of egg. (Did you know that chickens had earlobes?) I'd hoped for red or blue or green or striped or spotted earlobes for some unique colored eggs. How fun would it be to really have green eggs and ham!

I'm learning all kinds of things about Gallus gallus domesticus (chickens).

Also, imagine my surprise when Nathan didn't decry my joke of chickens as a housewarming gift. I need to learn to stick to cats for that!
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Comments

Andrea B. said…
Oh girl, you're in for it. I can't wait to hear how it all goes!
April 15, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Andrea - said…
One casualty so far. I came home from work on Monday to find one of the chicks had been pecked to death. Luckily Mark had said something at work about the possiblity of chickens doing that. So far the other two are doing fine. I can't believe chickens can be so mean!!! I also found out that chickens really can fly--until they get big and fat. I'm feeding mine tons. So far Cambridge hasn't bothered them either.
April 15, 2010 at 6:37 PM
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