What I See Wednesday

Your regularly scheduled "What I See Wednesday" has been pre-empted..or is it hijacked?  Instead of the garden and other photos you're eagerly awaiting - today you will see CHICKENS!!!

Stella - The Ringleader - Ms. Attitude

Midge (on right) & her Poultry Posse

HeartyGirl aka #19 aka Trauma Chicken

Thelma or Louise - The Spies

More of Stella's Minions

Stella - rallying the troops
from the TOP of the pen

Training on the gangplank

Sgt Stella shows them the correct way

The coop - Headquarters

Stella biting (pecking) the hand that feeds her - mine

Can you believe how much these little ones have grown in just under 2 weeks?  Except for Midge, they've pretty much doubled if not tripled in size.  Most of them are flying for short little bits, it's hard to keep them in their little pen anymore.  HeartyGirl has done quite well following her ordeal; she's still a bit smaller than some of the others, but she'll catch up. 

Stella is quite the comedienne and definitely rules the roost.  She'll fly right to either of us and land on our hands or arms.  Goofy bird likes to be petted and is one of the nosiest critters I've ever had.  She has a real thing for Mr. MoonCat ~ maybe that's why she's always trying to get my wedding ring?

In spite of Dad and everyone else making fun of us, we'll continue naming the little feathered fiends as we go.  We'll also keep you updated on their progress and our fall from sanity...

The Stork aka Dork Brought Us Chickens

Look what showed up at MoonCat Farms yesterday:

Baby Chicks!!  18 of them....

I need to put this out there so people won't think that besides being a crazy cat lady, I am also a crazy chicken lady.  I planned on starting our chicken farming experience with SIX hens/pullets.  As in 1/2 of a dozen, at least half-grown.  THE MAN aka. Mr. MoonCat is the CRAZY one who brought 18 (actually 19) baby chicks home for his wife to raise.  Gotta love the big guy.. 

The Midge

We need to note that these will end up being pets with names as we are raising them for eggs, not meat.  From the captions on some of the photos, you can see we've already started with the process. 

Thelma or Louise

Baby Chook

from l-r: Ameraucana, Rhode Island Red (2), White Leghorn, Plymouth Barred Rock

I was originally getting Ameraucanas, Rhode Island Reds, and BROWN Leghorns.  All three of these lay different colored eggs:  Ameraucanas blue/green/pink eggs, Rhode Island Reds brown eggs, and the Leghorns lay white or creamy eggs.  Mr. MoonCat got 2 of the 3 right. 

Actually the main reason I wanted any color but WHITE Leghorns is because the white chickens tend to be easy targets for predators.  Since we have a cover over the entire chicken run and coop area, that shouldn't be an issue (we hope).  The Plymouth Barred Rock weren't in the running and I think those are our "free" birds. 

Aren't they cute? (for now)

Now, I'll tell you why it is actually 19 chicks not 18 as we thought or have pictured, but before PETA or some other organization attacks - the hubby had no idea how many chicks were in the box - this was an accident and he was horrified. 

My dad's friend runs the feed store and stashed a bunch of extra (as in, unknown number of) chicks in with hubby's 10 chicks that he bought.  Great, except that Chick #19 was found under the backseat of the pickup today.  She'd apparently got out of the box in transit and stowed away.  She was alone in the HOT truck from early yesterday afternoon until late today.  Mr MoonCat called me frantically from the gas station to tell me he had a baby chick that needed immediate attention.  He'd heard a strange chirping over the radio and couldn't figure out what it was until he stopped for gas!

So, #19 now known as HeartyGirl was rushed home to mama where I gave her sugar water and fussed over the tiny little thing for a few hours.  As soon as I got her pecking at the water dish and taking little drinks, she seemed to revive pretty quickly.  When I placed her in the pen she happily started pecking around with the others.  I made sure she found the water before I left her to it.  When I went out to put the babies in the coop for the night, she seemed to be doing well.

Hopefully she will have a complete recovery from her ordeal.  I don't know about poor Mr. MoonCat though as he has called three times to check on her since he left the house.   The big softie actually thought he could raise these babies for meat as well as eggs :)

enjoying the outside pen