Our New Girls

I was looking back through my blog posts, and realized that I hadn't introduced our "girls" to this blog yet, and now seems like a great time!

Our son had done some work for a local neighbor this past summer, and she had some chickens that needed a home, and so one day my son showed up at the house with these six lovely ladies! Luckily, we had a chicken coop that was on the property already, and it was perfect for them.

Even though our son brought the chickens home, our daughter, however, has turned out to be the one who really fell in love with "the girls", while our son stops by to see them every once in a while.

At first they were very skittish, and didn't like to be held or touched at all.

The most important thing to them was that they had enough food and water.

If you tried to approach them, they would run for their coop, so we knew that this had to change.

They were six pretty girls, but they all looked almost identical.  One of them has a small ring of light gold around her neck, but other than that, they all look almost identical.

But their personalities make them stand out.  This one is very friendly and outgoing, and will be the first one to come out of the coop when you bring food.

So, we began experimenting with different things to teach them that we loved them, and wanted to be friends.  I began putting pieces of bread in a bowl with oatmeal and some milk.

Wow! Things really started to turn around!  We discovered that they really love bread and milk!

Now, when we come to the coop to feed them, they hustle and bustle out the door to get to the bowl first.

It doesn't take them long to finish off this bowl of bread, oatmeal, and milk.

Their favorite thing to do is to grab a piece of bread out of the bowl and drop it in the dirt and mud, and then eat it.  Silly chickens!  But, I guess they do need the dirt and stones to help their gizzards digest their food.

This little hen was guarding her piece of bread like a hawk, because some of the others liked to come around and steal her bread.

So we have begun taking them out of the coop into our backyard.  The grasshoppers have just taken over right now, and the hens had a heyday chasing after the grasshoppers!

It was funny how they would run around after a grasshopper, but yet still be very skittish and so aware of their surroundings, that if anything (such as a car driving by) scared them, they would run into their little group.

Such pretty little things they are!

Having fun chasing after grasshoppers - yeah!  KILL IT! One less grasshopper in our yard!

They are a lot of fun to watch, and you can begin to tell them apart by their personalities.

There are two hens who really aren't scared of much.  There are two others that are cautious, but not overly afraid.  Then there are two who really are timid chickens, and run for the coop if you move a little too fast, or if something just scares them.

It has been a lot of fun getting used to having chickens.  I find myself looking forward to visiting with them every day, and talking to them, and petting them.  The biggest event I can't wait for is when they begin to lay eggs.  I am not sure just exactly how old they are, or what kind of breed they are.  I believe my son was told they were a mix of two different kinds of hens.  At any rate, I hope that they become good egg layers, because we love us some good home grown eggs!  You can be sure I will blog about the egg laying event when it finally takes place!!!