Meet My New Chickens!

Introducing - Rosie and Egret, my two new chickens!  These are likely two of the chickens hatched in the incubator in my office, from eggs laid by Joe's chickens, just in time for Easter.  Notice that Rosie has pink legs and Egret has orange legs, otherwise, they look like twins.  They are still babies really, and won't be old enough to lay eggs until the end of October.  

The new chicks have been given the chicken tractor, and are staying cooped up for a few days to make sure they know where to come home to sleep.  I don't want them to pick up any bad habits from Mrs. Hall, who after years of being a good chicken and sleeping in the coop, now prefers to sleep on top of my cement elephant.  

 Oh yeah, Mrs. Hall, I'm talking about you!

If you would like to hear Mrs. Hall explain her feelings about the new intruders in her house, turn up the volume and watch the video above.  This was their first face to face meeting, and overall, I think the conversation went pretty well since only a few feathers were ruffled.   

Despite being handled by my nieces when they were very small, these chicks aren't used to me, and unlike Mrs. Hall, who was raised by me since they she was a few days old, these new chickens were raised by their adoptive mother (or maybe their real mother), one of mom's hens who hatched chicks at the same time and allowed us to sneak in some of my incubator orphans.  So, how do I tame a chicken? Step One: I begin cooing and talking chicken baby talk at a distance from the coop, so as not to scare them, but to capture their attention. Hello chickie wickies!  Cluck cluck.  

Step Two:  Harvest tasty tomato treats on the way to the coop, and let them see that I have the goods. 

Step Three: Offer the bribe to establish status as Food Lady.  Who wants and tasty overripe tomato?  See, yummy treats happen when you hear me say "chick chick chick".  

Step Four: Back away and watch the wary chicks learn to love tomatoes. With my chicken wrangling skills, I don't think it will take long before these chicks are eating out of my hands!  And eating my garden!