Rain, rain, go away...

We ate Brenda last Monday night.  The kids wouldn't, and that's ok.  They don't know what they were missing though.  She was tasty.  I'm not sure we will raise meat birds again.  It's MUCH easier to go to the store and pay 99 cents a pound.  But it was an experience.

Meanwhile the baby chickens are getting big!  They are now 5 weeks old.
Below is a picture of each breed.

Buff Orpington

Rhode Island Red

Plymouth Barred Rock

The weather this past week has been so off.  Right now it's 12:30pm and 42 degrees and raining!!  So very wrong for the end of May.  To give the chickens some warmth I turned the heat lamp on inside the coop.  This gives them a chance to warm up and stay dry.  They seemed to welcome a warm spot to wait out the weather.  We've turned it off about a week ago since the little chickens are feathered out more and able to keep themselves warm.  Surprisingly all them are now roosting at night.  I've heard of people having to PUT their chickens in the coop at dusk to teach them where to go but all of ours seem to know that instinctively.  They are usually in there by 8:30.  I have to admit that I'm jealous.  I wish I could go to bed every night at 8:30.

It's looking more and more like my kids are good at sexing chickens. (Either that or Tractor Supply mis-labeled the tanks in which they sell the chickens.)  Henrietta, Amelia and George all appear to be pullets (or female), which is what we want for eggs.  We bought them out of a "straight run" (males and females mixed) tank and took our chances at getting any females.  We don't want noisy roosters.

Henrietta

Amelia

George(ia)

This discovery is making the decision of how many to keep even harder.  We had hoped that only 2 were female and then we would keep 2 of each of the other breeds.  Is 9 birds too many?? Also making the decision harder is how much they LOVE me....

I'm so popular when I go out to say "hi"...especially if I come bearing watermelon or cantaloupe!

"Good morning"

*no food was used to capture this photo...they just love me!