Mary Lou has some problems

The weather-people keep calling for rain and thunderstorms, so the chickens haven't been out much lately.  We took them out a few days ago and let them roam the yard freely.

We sat on the playground forever waiting for those wimps to leave the crate, so we had to toss out some treats.  They took the bait!  They finally ventured forth and seemed a little curious...

We thought they would be so excited to have so much free space compared to their crate!  But no.  They walked 5 feet into the corner of the yard and stayed there for the rest of their field trip.  Wow, exciting choice, girls!  Those are some adventurous birds there.

And here's Mary Lou with that stupid look stuck on her face.  I don't know what her deal is, but every time I look at her, she's making that dumb face.  Open mouth, dead eyes.  I can't stand her.  I mean, maybe I'm being too hard on her.  Mary Lou is a fine enough chicken, but she's just got one of those faces that makes me furious.  Haven't you ever met someone whose face just makes you angry as soon as you see them?  Well she's the chicken version of that.

Here's Oneita, who always loves to find a good perch spot from which she can survey her kingdom:

You might be able to see some feathers on the far left of that last picture.  That's Mary Lou.  She sat over there forever with that dumb look on her face.  Before she settled there, she kept trying to follow the flock but kept getting stuck on the other side of the crate.  The flock left the crate and she was stuck inside, unable to figure out how to get through the side bars.  Then she finally figured out there was a door and got out, but by then, the flock was heading back inside the crate and Mary Lou was the only one left outside.  Then they all switched again.  Mary Lou has some problems.

Throwback Thursday

I thought it would be fun to do a #tbt post, so here are some cute pictures of the chickens when they were tiny!

Bernice... always ready to strike a pose:

Mr. Helen... before my brother magically and tragically turned her into a rooster:

Oneita... during our quality bonding time when she liked to perch on my wrist and survey her kingdom:

Mr. Helen has gone to the farm

A few days after I last posted, my mom and I went out to my brother's house to see the chicken tractor he built - which came out really awesome, by the way.  We were checking out his chickens, and as soon as we saw his three Partridge Rocks, our hopes were ruined.  His three were all still fairly small and had tiny combs, which means that our tall, beautiful Mr. Helen, with his big, fabulous comb, is definitely a rooster.

Here's a good picture of the colors in his feathers.  See the green near the end of his wings?  He's so beautiful.

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to have roosters in town, and since he's quite vocal compared to our other chickens, we knew we had to find him a new home.  Not just get rid of him - we didn't want to send him off to the slaughterhouse, and we didn't think we could actually kill him ourselves.  We wanted to find him a real home, someplace where he could roam free and happy, and where he could keep the name Mr. Helen.

Apparently the chicken forums are packed full of offers for free roosters, and no one seems to want them, except maybe for dinner.  Then my mom called Spence, from Spence's Farm, and he said, "Sure, bring him over any afternoon!  We'll put him in the chicken pen."  We really wanted to keep Mr. Helen long enough to hear him crow, but my mom didn't want to wait too long and risk Spence changing his mind.  So we took Mr. Helen over there yesterday afternoon.

"What?!  You're going to leave me here?!"

We thought Mr. Helen's comb was awesome, but check out the comb on this dude!

Here is Mr. Helen having his first altercation with a bigger rooster:

But Mr. Helen stood his ground and I was proud of him.  I think he'll be okay.  He just has to establish himself in the pecking order.

After that was over, Mr. Helen started roaming around, checking out where everything is in his new home.

This is the chicken pin from outside the fence:

And here is the winter coop:

So that's Mr. Helen's new home!  As we were leaving, we felt kind of bad that our other chickens couldn't live out there on that big farm, but they'll have their own awesome chicken coop soon!