They Missed Me

Day 63 of 365

I’ve usually been able to win all of our chickens over, even the ones who are skeptical, skittish, and overall just cautious of me for the longest time. I would say that most of my chickens love me, but most of them love me for the snacks. I have had a few who just really seemed to like me–Poe and Broody hen have both passed away, but Mary Jane likes me, as does Penelope.

But I have never had a group of chicks who loved me the way the little group of five I adopted seem to love me. They are not even food driven. They don’t yet really care for snacks. They just are genuinely happy to see me when I come to see them. Today, I was gone most of the day. My son is another music camp on the coast, and the drive is so long that I just stayed in the little town while he was at camp all morning and into the early afternoon.

It was late afternoon when we got home, and before I even came into the house, I went out to see my chicks. I missed them. I turns out, they missed me! I have have had this experience before. These chicks ran up to see me–cheeping the whole way. They jumped in my lap, and three of them jumped up on my shoulders and head. Little Hector, who just so happens to be a girl, sat on my shoulder and complained in my ear about what a terrible day it was without me. I’m pretty sure that’s what she’s saying.

There is a little rooster from Ruby’s bunch of kiddos that’s pretty darn aggressive. He’s pretty mean to Hector. He really needs to go, but it’s hard because he’s gorgeous–a gorgeous jerk.

Bit, for real, I think she was also telling me she was just really excited to see me.

Anyway, I’ll deal with that little rooster later. Right now, I’m just going to treasure having these chicks love me so much. I swear, I wasn’t even a very good mama. I didn’t give them enough attention on far too many days. They are just very sweet-natured birds. I have to highly recommend their breeds: Black Copper Maran, Blue Copper Maran, and Lavender Orpington. If you are interested in any of these breeds and are in Maine, I highly recommend Why Not Farms.

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And I have to give a quick Ruby update. Ruby has finally settled down a bit and no longer steals the crate from her children, but she has refused to go back into the coop. She has taken to roosting at night on some stuff in the garage and hanging around the driveway all day. Ron was complaining a bit about this arrangement because she poops in the garage, of course, but Ruby talked to him this morning and, apparently, won him over. “I guess Ruby’s moved into the garage for awhile,” he said. I guess so.