Spring Chickens.

The weather in Atlanta this winter has been terrible. Record flooding, tons of cloudy, cold (Seattle-like) weather. I have to bite my tounge when southerners complain about this - ("uh, the weather is like this 9 months out of the year in my home town"). Thankfully, it seems like things are turning for the better. We are now in the 40s and some days are really really sunny. So, our little family has been busy....well multiplying. No we're not pregnant. We just added a flock of eight chicks to our little household. My co-worker/buddy Mandy who grew up in Jonesboro told me we could get some at an old feed & seed called Swints. It was great. Mr. Swints looks to be in his 80s, loves chickens (keeps a flock of 20 at home) and told me (as his shaky liver spotted hand reached into terrorized peeping chicks) that I need "to be like their mother hen". No problem. So, for the next 30 minutes he stood out of his freedom chair and grabbed our little flock. We got (we think) the following pullets (girl chickens):

2 Dominique/Sex Links (I'll explain)

2 Red Star Comets

2 Plymouth Rock

Also we have two that we aren't sure of (they are very flashy and mellow birds). Here's a shot of part of our flock:

What we know about our birds is that they're endangered, "heritage" breeds (I knew they were special!) They are pretty skiddish now but I'm trying to get them used to us by talking to them, sticking my hand in the brooder (their baby home) and of course, cuddling them. Any name suggestions are greatly appreciated. So far we've named the 2 Plymouths Violet and Indigo. The bigger Dominique is called Bea (she's the dominate chicken we think). I've been reading a lot about these guys, as well as talking to Jennika (who just brought home four of her own on Thursday). She told me that chickens have been around for a long time - maybe 8,000 years and are originally thought to be from southeast Asia. They are really hard to sex which is really important because we can't have roosters in the city. According to Mr. Swint a bunch of Japanese guys roam around the hatchery "squeezing" the babies all day - 5,000 at a time - in order to label them pullets. The "sex-links" are born with markings to distingish them...so they didn't have to be "squeezed". Sigh. Anyway, they are so cool. I love my flock, more than I thought I would. XOXO