A couple of weeks ago we added to the poultry population at our house and with that comes that daily excitement of having young birds around the house. They are here for a purpose, to lay fresh "organic" free range eggs at our home. They are also here to amuse us, to love and to cherish that is until they met Mem.
We had purchased 10 total in a matter of a week. We know for sure that we have a couple of Rhode Island Reds, a couple of Wyandottes and supposedly there is some type of "Sexbird"- seriously I am not making that up, both my oldest daughter and I heard that from the feed store lady! I am not an expert on identifying the breeds of chickens. I have spent some serious time on the internet trying to figure out what the lady told me at the feed store but I have come up with nothing. There are never pictures of birds as chicks they are always shown as adults. If any of them are having an identity crisis because they don't know who they are - well, they will just have to work it out until I can figure it out.
Pook's chick died on Sunday. His name was Caruso and he was the definite runt. He had barely grown at all compared to the other birds. Mem was the most affected by it. Caruso was buried in the yard before she woke up that morning and she didn't get to say "Good-bye". Well, lo and behold if the next day she didn't dig the bird up to say "Good-bye"!
Let me introduce a few of the new members of our elite egg-laying club....
This is Sis's bird, Hannah Montana (original I know, poor singer probably loves to know that animals are named ofter her!)
Here is Mem's bird, Dots...
This is my bird, Lady Liberty...
Our next finalist belongs to Hot Rocks, this is Zing-Zing...
Her name means "Star" in Chinese. We got it off of the back of a fortune in a fortune cookie.
Up next, is the ever so lovely, Oreo, she is presently owned by Sis...
Following Oreo is Mem's other bird, Theodore. Isn't that a lovely name for a lady bird?

Hot Rock's other bird is affectionately named "Dinner". Yes, you read that correctly folks!
Sacajawea wouldn't stay still long enough for me to snap her picture but I did get Pook's bird, Indiana Chick. She has a little story behind her....
Indiana Chick is the sole survivor of Pook's birds. He handled Caruso's death pretty well because A LOT of his animals die. I was very proud of him for how he handled it. You can never figure on the "Mem factor" though. You just NEVER know what she is doing. Yesterday, she was playing with the chickens. Holding them closely, killing them softly in her arms - did I say that ? Oops, I didn't mean to say that!
She decided to give Indiana Chick a BATH! Yes, she had drawn the water from the spigot...filled her bucket and proceeded to dump the chick into the water several times until it was drenched! I was inside starting dinner, when she brings the bird inside in a complete panic, crying out "I didn't mean to kill it. It's gonna die, fix it!" The bird is barely chirping, it's eyes are half shut, it's shivering and all I can think of is Pook losing another animal at the hands of his younger sister, no less.
I snagged the bird from her hands, wrapped her in a warm towel and tried to explain to Pook what just happened to his lone bird. All he could say was "If she dies, Mem is buying me a new one. Make that 2!" I don't quite know where he thinks a 4 year old will get the funds to buy him a new bird or what hard labor I could force upon her, but I understood where he was coming from.
Indiana Chick sat wrapped in the towel, in the sun, close to Pook's chest for a while. We then placed her under the heat lamp where she finished drying off nicely. Indiana Chick survived the ordeal and thus Mem has been placed on "chicken restriction". She is not allowed to touch the chicks at all for a while. She longingly watched them from a distance today - wanting to touch them, to hold them, to love them, to TORTURE them! That will have to wait for another day though.
I have already recruited my Dad to come and help "remodel" the coop area in the backyard and have submitted the plans for his approval. LOL It's all about the 2 x 4's - give him a big stick and the man is happy!
Until our next exciting adventure here at Camp Cookman - Happy Trails!
