Chicks born today!

I guess fate would have it that I am home with a sinus infection. I went out to check on Lulu and Stretchie, and look what I found!

The yellow one was out first, trying to wander away from Lulu who kept nudging her back. Independent at a few hours old, so I named her Liberty.

Hatching eggs

Mary brought over some beautiful hatching eggs. She just picked up some Sussex chickens, and they are really a nice looking chicken. If these hatch, they would be a mix.

We marked them all with Xs, and put them in the nesting box. There was almost immediate interest, with CoCo the first one to sit on them.

Next, we saw the Brown One sitting on them.

Then Lulu.

Now Stretchie.

And, for some reason, we've gone from 12 hatching eggs to only 10 hatching eggs, even though Marcy biked all over the neighborhood trumpeting the news. Whoever took the eggs with the X didn't know us or the flock. Maybe the O'Possum family that moved in next door?

My buddy Blanche

I had a realization on the way home from work today. I just could not stay at my desk the full 8 hours today. I was driving home a whopping 15 minutes early, feeling the freedom, when I realized that I am Blanche.

Why else would I put up with her going on walkabout, sitting sullen alone in the corner and flying up in people's faces? Not that I am a loner, or mean like her. But I understand that need to do what you want to do once in a while, with no one telling you to do it. Put me on a budget, I'll go shopping. Put me on a diet, I'll eat chocolate. Tell me I must sit 40 hours a week in a cube, I'll leave early even if it is only a few minutes and of course I would deduct it from my timesheet. (I was raised Catholic; it's not in me to lie.)

Who can blame a person for wanting a little freedom in life? Who can blame Blanche?

Don't fence me in must be Blanche's motto, even if it means simply spending the day on the other side of the fence or in the pine tree above it.

Three new chicks the day before Easter

We attempted a photo shoot with these three new little ones, and as you can see, it went real well. They stayed in position, didn't make the shot blurry, very well behaved.

Martha Stewart had an entire show devoted to chickens on Friday, and chick fever struck again. I told my husband we would just get three -- each of us could pick one out. No, no, no, he said but around two in the afternoon, off we went to the farm store.

When we got there, the farm store guy asked if we had called ahead. We had, so I said yes. For some reason, there was a hold slip for three chicks with the name Sarah on it. Sure, that's me, I said. I don't remember holding any, but there must be enough chicks in the world. I didn't know there would be a gatekeeper process.

So once that was figured out, the farm store guys says, "You want yellow or black?"

I hadn't expected this question.

"Could I just see them?"

He hemmed and hawed as if I was asking for jewelry from the back safe or something.

Finally, I said, "We're here to pick three out for pets." I think they're so used to chicks being a product, not a pet, that he just was going to throw some in a box.

He nodded to three being overly petted by three giddy kids. No, I want to see others, I said.

Finally, he brought out six, and of those six, we picked Angel, Luigi and Moon. They're healthy and supposedly had been sexed by the hatchery as being hens. Marcy's is yellow, Jim's is black, and mine is the blackish-greyish one.

The farm store guy, for working at a farm store, didn't know anything about what breed they are. Just that they are yellow or black, which any 6-year-old could discern.

So it will be another adventure, seeing what these little guys become.

Three new chicks