Being Mother Hen

I'm honestly not sure why, but somewhere along the way my son decided that we needed chickens.  I mean, back in the day that was feasible, because the kid would seriously eat about two dozen eggs a week.  Now that he's 8, we have such a busy and hectic lifestyle that we barely ever eat at home PERIOD.  But whatever.

Back in the Spring, we made a trip to the local Tractor Supply, to get his friend a birthday present.  While we were there, we hear the distant "peep, peep, peep" in the background.  It was inevitable.  Monster heard the peeps and we HAD to run back to look at the chicks.  They were seriously adorable.  At that time, they had chicks, ducks and turkeys and a few other types of fowl.  But seriously, those baby chicks.  They had to come home with us.  I told him we couldn't get them right that moment, but we could go back over the weekend and get a few.  -The sign said we had to take a minimum of six.  EEK!

We had kind of been talking with my Mom about going in half on some chicks and some supplies, even though all of us were quite clueless on what we were even going to do with the chickens.  Sure, we want the eggs, but they need food and shelter and ....  ugh.

So the weekend came and of course Monster remembered... we HAD to get chicks.  So I called my Mom and asked her if she wanted to go on a little road trip to Tractor Supply.  At that moment, we picked out six precious chicks and grabbed some basic supplies which I barely knew about and went on our way.

For a brooder we snagged a large tote and a heat bulb and a clip on lamp to hang over the side of the tote.  We got some shallow bowls and of course food.. and these six baby, FEMALE chicks. -According to the guy at Tractor Supply, the chicks were only 5 days old at that time.  They're all Rhode Island Reds.

I've always named animals after their visual appearances and/or characteristic traits.  So after a few days of studying, we came up with this:

Space: she was the darkest colored chick and sort of walked around seemingly clueless about her surroundings.

Carol:  Have you ever seen Deuce Bigelow?  Remember the narcoleptic lady?  Yeah.  Her.  Well, Carol has always been a bit special.  She would literally fall asleep where she stood, which was usually in the water bowl.  I just don't think the elevator ever reached the top floor with that one.

Carol Asleep in her Food Bowl

Starling:  Starling was a frail little Runt.  Not sure why, but that's what my Mom Named her.

Lazy:  Lazy just sort of never did anything. Honestly, I thought she might croak and never become anything.  She always slept and that was it.

Stevie Boo Alfreda The Wonder Chick(HEN): Well, Stevie Boo Alfred the Wonder Chicken was my chicken that I had back in school.  My parents sort of never fed my chicken and let it die when I went off to camp.  So, in an ODE to Stevie the Chicken, I named my new, favorite Bird after him.  Stevie is seriously an awesome hen now.  By far my favorite.

And last, but not least,

SHIT HEAD: see, whenever I'd leave the chicks for work in the morning, I always checked on them to make sure they were good.  By the time I got home, all the other chicks had poop on their heads... except for one.  So she earned the name "SHIT HEAD".


Day after day of taking care of the chicks and watching them grow, you quickly become attached.  They're definitely more than just fowl that are going to give you fresh "butt nuggets" daily.  They become pets and a part of the family.

The Girls are already Selfie Princesses

As the girls got bigger, we started to wonder if Space was actually a "Space Cock" or Stevie was actually a STEVE.  It was so hard to tell.  So we had to just keep waiting.

It got to a point where I would come home and find poop all over the room they were in. The girls were quickly growing out of their brooder.  I was going to have to put them outside soon.

I ordered some coops off of Amazon.  They were honestly sub-par, quite crappy coops, but they worked I guess.  The boyfriend bought a dog kennel about 10'x10' and built it up around the coops and started leaving the girls outside.  I can't remember the time frame, but it seems like fairly soon after we started leaving the girls outside, our little runt Starling ended up passing away.  Still not officially certain what happened to her, but I can reassure you that it was definitely gruesome and a larger animal must have gotten her through the fence.  RIP Poor little starling bird.

The Awkward & Ugly Pullet Stage

So now the girls have been in their coops for a few week and everything is going great....but No, it really isn't.  I come home one day and I find a chicken on my back deck.  Ugh.  The chickens are ALREADY escaping the pin.  What now?  After about a week or two of this, the boyfriend and I go off to the store to buy a tarp and some pieces to build a roof over the pin.  We had decided that we were going to wait until the next evening to put the "roof" on, because it was going to be getting dark when we got home... but as soon as we got home, the plans had to instantly change. NOPE, roof goes up TONIGHT.  We had chickens all over the yard.  Lazy is running around the deck, Shit Head is wandering aimlessly and Carol is in a tree.  My girls Stevie and Space were inside the pin, being good little birds.  So, as it started to get dark and the rain started to slowly trickle down, we devised a roof to keep the girls inside of their enclosure and free from harms way.

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So some time has passed, and the girls still make me laugh daily.  A few of them have stayed true to their names even.  They're officially 27 weeks old today.  Rhode Island Reds generally start laying eggs at around 24 weeks old.  Daily, we only have 3 eggs at the most, which means it's likely that 2 girls are not laying eggs.

Stevie is my Cuddly hen.  If I'm sitting outside, she will hop up in my lap and go for a little nap.  The boyfriend discovered that Stevie girl is officially an egg layer.  We heard some ungodly sounds coming from the coops, while the girls should have been roaming the yard.  He snuck up onto the coop and lifted up the door to see her in there having a hard time with her egg.  Stevie is seriously the cutest.  She has an extra large, super floppy comb on her had.  It doesn't stand upright and sort of falls all over the place. Stevie also has a super cute, extra fluffy chicken butt that makes me laugh.

Space was my first Mother Hen.  She's also the head of the Pecking Order.  She's bossy to the other girls but she's a good Hen.  She just lays her eggs and does her own thing and keeps the other girls in line.  I caught Space laying eggs a few weeks before the other girls even started laying eggs.  The only downfall about Space is that she's VERY vocal.  She runs around yelling for no reason, a LOT.  Even when she's running the yard freely, she yells.  She also jumps and does tricks for snacks.

Space

Shit Head.... Oh Shit Head.  She's by far the truest to her name.  I had stuff to do, so being the overprotective Mother, I had to round the girls up and put them in the pin.  I hate leaving them out if I'm going to be gone a few hours.  I'd hate to come back and have a dead chicken and be clueless as to what happened to her.  It would probably eat me up inside. -So, I went through and rounded up all the girls and where is Shit Head?  Seriously.  The bird is NOWHERE!  I get in the car and drive around the block a few times.  Calling "Shit Head, Come here Shit Head.  Where are you girl?" as I shake the treat bag (the girls LOVE their treats) and NOTHING.  Finally, when I get back home, I look up on the roof and hear a panicked chicken.  Shit Head is on the roof of the house.  WTF!  If I had to guess, I'd say she scaled up the lilac bush and hopped onto the roof from there.  UGH!  Crazy Bird.  Luckily for me, she half flew down onto the deck and quickly went back inside the pin with the other girls.  -Also, at one point, Shit Head felt it was necessary to build a nest out in the yard and lay her egg there.  She's a brat bird, but luckily she's only done that once.

Lazy is honestly just a bitch.  I'm pretty sure she's also a free loader.  Lazy loves to try and eat my toes if I'm wearing sandals.  -Shit Head does this too, but not as bad as Lazy.  Lazy also runs up behind people and bites their legs.  -So wear jeans.  I jokingly put a sign on the Pin that says "BEWARE OF ATTACK CHICKEN" when the girls were first put outside, but I definitely NEED that sign now.  Lazy has really pretty, dark markings on her.  She's pretty, but she's just MEAN.  -Last week a Hawk tried to snatch up Lazy, but failed.  I'm a bit glad that my girl is a chubby one.

Shit Head & Carol

And Lastly.. Carol.  Carol is definitely low bird on the Pecking Order Pole.  She has a very small, almost non-existent crown.  She sort of hangs with the flock, but you can usually spot her wandering off by herself.  I always say she's sort of stupid, but honestly, she's probably got it all figure out.  She's realized that if she isn't with everyone else, if she catches a tasty cricket to eat, she gets to eat it for herself and not have to fight over it for the other girls.  At the same time, she also misses out on a lot of treats because she is too busy wandering around and doesn't always "COME" with the other girls.  By the time she gets back to the coop, the other four pigs have gobbled up all the goods.  I'm pretty certain Carol has yet to lay an egg and she probably never will.  She's a bit "SPECIAL", but I love her nonetheless.

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I'm sure I'll probably be telling more stories about the girls, but I wanted to at least introduce them.  They're the best entertainment I have lately.

*You might notice in some of the pictures that the girls have colored Leg bands on.  I'm around the Girls daily, so I can tell them apart, but people always ask "Which one am I talking to/Holding?".  I ordered these handy little leg bands off of Amazon and they've been SUPER handy.  It's a pack of 30 leg bands, 10 different colors with 3 of each color. Check them out here.

Space: Black Leg Band
Shit Head: Brown
Stevie: Yellowish Orange
Carol: Purple
Lazy: White
Starling: Pink