So now that we have new babies, I had to come up with a name for the first round of babies this year - from the feed store, all Ameraucanas - to differentiate them. These were born the first day of March, 2017, roughly. They were a week old already when I brought them home, but other than being confused about why she had babies so quickly, the broody hen sitting on the nest gladly took over the job of raising them for me. Yay, except that now these 5 babies (er, almost adults now) are terrified of me and if I approach then, they run, screaming hysterically.
This is a problem at night because with the exception of Cheeks, they refuse to roost ON the roost with the other hens (who were born first week of April, 2016, and don't like these newbies and let them know they are lowest of the low in the flock hierarchy) so they roost IN the nesting boxes that hardly anybody uses for actually laying eggs in. So when I'm poking around in the nesting boxes and under them, where most of the eggs are laid, they are flapping and crying and generally freaking out. Silly nitwits.
But, annoying as all of that is, they are wonderfully unique in feather colors and patterns. Which of course I don't have many pictures of yet, oops. Before they were moved to the big coop with the rest of the flock, they spent a few weeks without mamma hen, cuddling together on the hayloft stair at night. Pretty cute.
Top left to right: Cheeks (Cheeks II, to be exact) and Alexa
Bottom left to right: Sunrise, Cheese (facing the opposite direction of all the rest. So typically Cheese), and Bandit
Now that they are semi-integrated into the flock, they do all still hang out together almost exclusively during the day, doing their own thing in their own group. Teenage clique!
(repeat photo from last post)
Cheese is named for how much her face resembled Cheese from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends when she was younger ;) Love that crazy show! Will add more pix of the other babies soon.
