My little red hen(ry)

You might remember a couple months back when we went to the feed store and picked up a couple of baby chicks.

Payton picked a little fluffy white chick and immediately named her Flowerbelle. Morgan picked this little black chick and insisted she was Princess. And I went for the chicken looking chick, a little red and gold thing and called her Henny Penny.



Watching them grow has been interesting. They were so cute in the beginning, and then they turned into this:



Oh yes, that would be Princess. Not so princessy, is she? Not that I want to judge, lol.

That photo was taken April 13. It's now more than a month later, so I wanted to share their current faces.

First is that little ball of puff that is Flowerbelle. She's the smallest of the three, and the only one that will really let the kids hold her. She's also the most submissive.



Then there's Henny Penny, the only traditional chicken looking chick of the three. Huge feet. Pretty coloring.


Gah. Do you see that ugly little devil in the background? That's Princess! You can't quite see it in this pic, but princess has this strange looking comb growing up top that has a hole in it. It's like a caribiner, just waiting for a leash or something.


The only redeeming quality about Princess is that when the sun shines on her black feathers, you can see some irridescent blues and purples which is fun. Otherwise... egads!

The cute little chicken coop is still getting some last minute touches, so I'm not ready to share it yet. But what's great about these three is that I go out every morning and open the door, and they just roam the yard, eating bugs. They always stay together, which is another plus, and it's fun to peek out in the yard and see them toodling around together. The only downside is that last week we had a harsh thunderstorm, and Steve ran outside to get them out of the weather. Lightning was flashing and hail was pelting down, so they literally jumped into his arms when he ran out there, and he just tossed them into his shop really quick and shut the door.

Now that he's done that they seem to think they own the place, so it's not uncommon to see Cooper, our yellow lab, sitting outside the door because they've booted him out of his napping spot. Me no likey chicken poop in the shop so we need to find a way to keep them out of there, lol.

I was all satisfied with our motley crew, until the other day, when I heard a suspicious noise, and walked outside to find this:




It turns out my sweet Henny Penny is actually HENRY Penny. dang.

Now we aren't sure what to do. We've heard you shouldn't eat fertilized eggs. We aren't worried about babies because once they start laying we'll be collecting every day, and if we are out of town or something and don't get the egg right away, we won't eat it, so I'm not worried about making scrambled eggs and hatching little chicks. And right now Henry isn't aggressive, so I'm not worried about that either.

Still trying to decide what to do. That said, Steve is still convinced that Princess is actually... Prince, so we are waiting to see if s/he starts crowing soon too. The only downside to that one being it's Morgan's chicken. But seriously. Look at that chicken, lol.


::sigh::