New Girls

Kyle went over and collected our 4 new chickens last night.  They are BIG!  Much bigger than I thought they would be - or maybe my girls are just small... lol



Ozzie checking out the new birds.  Red is on the left



They were too big to keep in the dog crate.  The original plan was to leave them in the crate, in the barn and then introduce them to the little girls on Saturday when I would be home all day to monitor.  ("They" recommend adding at night and/or sitting there with a spray bottle filled with water to discourage any aggressive behavior...)  

But they really looked like those poor "factory" chickens all smashed in the crate.  I couldn't make them spend the night in there.  So... we waited until it was nearly dark and put them in the coop.



Red, up front and center



They have never been in the grass before.  They were kept in a nice, clean 8'x 8' shed (with windows) but had never been "outside" before.  They LOVED it!  Immediately ate the only tall weeds in there.  And then started on the grass.  Then they noticed the little girls eating their dinner in the big hanging feeder.  Decided to give that a try.



Checking out the fluffy weeds I tossed in there this morning.  YUM!



It was HYSTERICAL!



Rocky venturing out from under the nesting box



Dive in for a peck, which caused the feeder to swing.  Jump back!  Aaaaack!  It MOVES!  It was pretty entertaining. (Guess you had to be there...)  We put the sides down on the hay wagon and sat there and watched (without any dogs - they were banished to the garage until this morning) and made sure everybody got along.  They were definitely split in two groups with some minor altercations, but nothing serious.



Hey look!  A dust bath!  Maybe later....



We are called the Barred Rock - black and white feathers, Rocky.  Imaginative, right?  For the obvious reasons, but she is also a little feisty.  Red is either a Rhode Island Red or a Red Star (red sex link - a cross between a RIR and something else - bred specially to be a good egg layer - thats what all my little red girls are...) 



Rocky and the random Yellow Bird.  No idea what she is....



And then there is a yellow something or other.  No idea.  I spent some time on the forums this morning trying to find something she looks like but I can't figure her out.  She's fairly shy, and the old owner said she goes broody (sits on her eggs trying to hatch them...)  He bought a fertilized egg and she happily hatched it out.  Which brings us to the baby grey.  No idea what it is or even if it is a boy or a girl.  Might turn out to be another barred rock, although now that I've looked at pictures of baby bars I'm thinking no.  She's (I'm HOPING she's a girl... so we're going with that for now) more dove colored.  Very shy.  Nobody likes her.  She doesn't fit with either group and just sort of hangs out between the two groups looking lonely.  Poor little thing.  Nobody picks on her, just nobody hangs out with her.  She'll probably end up my favorite.  (grin)  I don't think I got any pictures of her this morning...



A better picture of the yellow girl.  She looks like some sort of Bantem, but???



So... now we're just waiting to see if we get eggs.  They layed yesterday, but there WAS a lot of trauma in the move.  So it might take a day or two for them to get comfortable.



Red and Rocky (Roxie?) stick together...



Yellow girl really DOES have a head... lol

 UPDATE:  Houston - we have an EGG! 

Ta Da!!!!  A nice, large, brown egg.