Eli has waited for almost a year for this day to arrive and it surely didn't disappoint. The big event you ask? Well, it involved a very important package...
And two very curious little boys...
Our chicks are HERE!
Eli has been asking to use the camera a lot lately. He's getting the hang of it. Sort of.
When I asked for the camera back (after he'd snapped about a gazillion pictures of the chicks), he delayed, stating, "I think I should get a picture of your flowers too." Ah, that boy-he knows his Mommy is a sucker for any photo shoot that involves flowers.
Of course, he also informed me he took a "weally" good picture of himself. Oh, indeed!
This chick has claimed the "favorite" title. It's a Black Australorp. He named it Loulou. In case you were wondering, the others are named Goldie, Chicken Licken, Chicken Little, and wait for it....Dicken Licken, Micken Licken and Zicken Chicken. Ah, yes-the joy of rhyming. I seriously hope he can't remember the last 3 names tomorrow.
Since the big debut, he's pretty much done nothing but hold them, feed them and stand "guard." Oh-that and request that I PLEASE immediately change their water/check the thermometer/clean out the poop. (Maybe we read a little too much about caring for chicks?) Emmett seems to think these little girls (they better be girls!) are pretty cool too. Though with his brother standing "guard" his chances of actually getting his hands on one have been somewhat limited.
All said, we ended up with 7 chicks: 3 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Bantums, 1 Australorp and 1 Golden Sexlink. I thought I knew what I was doing when we went to the feed store to pick out 6. I researched breeds, I asked for recommendations, I had a Top 5 Breeds list. And then we went to the feed store and I didn't pay any attention to the signs next to each brox that said, "Straight Run." Turns out that means you might be getting hens or roosters-they haven't been sorted. Turns out I didn't ask the nice sales clerk until after Eli had already carefully selected his chicks. So I got one extra hoping it would be a hen. Please, please don't let Loulou grow up to be a rooster. I made him promise we would give away any that grew up to be roosters (replacing them with hens, of course). Please, please let them all grow up to be hens-ha! like I can change anything now!
Even though I had chickens as kid, this experience of watching the awe and excitement through my child's eyes is so much better. Isn't that the way of parenting? Everything old becomes new.
Shane's been working away on Eli's new house-I mean the coop-and has it about halfway finished. Eli has pretty much taken to living in the roost. Hopefully the hens don't mind sharing.
