hen party!!!

Official chick update:

Yay, no deaths to report (so far so good)!

And they are finally starting to look like actual chickens!

    

  Brown Leghorn back in March. 

                        Brown Leghorn at 9 weeks

  

  New Hampshire Red back in March

              New Hampshire Red now at 8 wks

  

Partridge Rocks back in March

                 Partridge Rock at 9 weeks

We also recently let them out of their coop (they are officially free range chickens!). Since they are not yet full grown, we do not let them out unless one of us is home to keep an eye out just in case anything bad happens to come along, but they don't seem too interested in wandering far from their coop. There is actually a giant bush right next to the coop, which is perfect protection from any birds of prey above, and they seem to be just fine doing their scavenging under the bush.

Giant bush next to coop door is the perfect place for protection and for finding little critters to munch on.

Go get those bugs!

Althea (our dog) has also finally got to get an up close look at the chickens after hearing them from behind a closed door and watching them from the other side of the chicken coop door. She has been around chickens before (we had four at our old house that hung out in the backyard with her) so she hasn't attacked or run after these girls, which has amazed us. She likes to sit and watch them and I think that the chickens have gotten used to her (she spent a lot of time staring at them through their coop door...just like a creepy stalker) because they don't seem to be fazed by her. They are actually more afraid of us right now than they are of her, which is great because it is just another line of defense for them while they are out and about.

I wish I had a picture of the chickens with Althea because it's actually pretty adorable seeing her just laying and watching while chickens cluck about around her, but every time I try to get close, the chickens scatter like a bunch of....chickens.

And in a week, the rest of the flock will be added to the hen house (YAY!!!), and it will be interesting to see how the two different hen gangs get along. I'm imagining it'll be something like The Outsiders...but with chicks...