The Power of a Chick

No I am not talking about their early flight skills.  But today I saw two very clear examples of the power these tiny little things have.

First - this morning, my normally never still, Meghan, sat quietly (seriously not talking!) and just watched the chicks for what must have been an hour.  This may not seem amazing to you but Meghan is like the energizer bunny.  She is rarely still and if she is relatively still, she is humming, singing, or talking.  For an hour this morning she sat absolutely quietly watching The Ladies sleep.  Anytime I went out to check on her (thinking she can't possibly still be sitting there), she hushed me so as not to wake them.  Wow!   Rock on little flock!

Second - and this one nearly moved me to tears.  One of our elderly neighbors who is going through a tough time putting her husband in a nursing home, came over to meet the chicks.  They had both been very excited to hear we were getting chickens and even happier that The Ladies would be on the side of the house facing them - so they could enjoy them too.  Well, her husband is now in a nursing home, but as soon as I called over the fence to her, she was on her way over.  She oohed and ahhed over the chicks and told me some stories about her growing up on a farm and having chickens.  Then she talked to me about her husband.  And finally she asked if when she was having a bad day whether it would be ok if she came over to just sit with the chickens.  And promptly claimed one as her "favorite."  I think it healed her heart a little for today.

These little Ladies don't know what they're doing but they bring peace and smiles when you watch them.  Our garage (where their brooder pen is) is not a glamourous place to hang out, but I have already hand some really nice conversations with both my girls as we just sit and watch the Ladies.

A little update on our flock.  After little Rosey died I got pretty nervous.  I want at least a flock of 3 as these are flock creatures and need companionship.  But after Rosey died we were down to three and not out of the woods in terms of finding out whether we have any roosters.  So Crazy Chicken Lady that I am, we got two more chicks.  I am now completely converted and have decided having chicks shipped is just too much stress for them.  So we found a man in Northeastern CT who raises and shows English Orpingtons.  They are similar to our little Luna but with poofier feathers and poofier bottoms that look like they are wearing pantaloons.  So we've added two to our flock, Hedwig and Bella.

Hedwig (AKA Heddy)

She is a Splash Orpington.  She will be white with splashes of color (either black or dark blue).  Her name of course is a bow to Harry Potter but also to one of Scott's and my favorite shows NCIS Los Angeles.  

 

Bella

She is also an English Orpington and will be black, dark blue or a combination of both.  The prediction is black up top with blue pantaloons.  At the moment she looks VERY similar to Ebony but we are learning to tell them apart.

 

So now we are 5.