Blurry, but you get a sense of the attitude!

Joan has mellowed out considerably now that Betty has taken over as Alpha Chicken. She's always very curious about the camera.

View from the inside...

Chickens check out the new digs

It's getting harder to take pictures of the ladies - they move faster than my phone can focus. They haven't figured out how to get from one level to the next in the coop, but under Joan's brave leadership they've dispatched with a few bugs.
Today's field trip will end once the tub dries from the scrub-down. Then it's back to the garage.

Updates from the garage

Well, the girls are almost three weeks old, and, as Jessica puts it, are looking more and more dinosaur-ish every day. They are well on their way to having a full set of feathers, and are definitely more feather than down right now. Good sized wings on all of them, tail feathers, and much more defined necks. We've got a screen over the top of the tub to prevent them from flying away, something they could certainly do if given the chance.

We introduced them to the coop a couple days back, now that it is set up. They were uninterested in going up and down the ramp, but rather stayed put in the roosting level. I think they didn't know what to make of all their new room. They are not staying in the coop--they're still in the tub in the garage, and will be for a few more weeks--but we thought since the coop is just sitting vacant (the squirrels have yet to discover it), we'd let them get an advance look at their new digs.

Speaking of the new digs, we are well on our way to having it move-in ready. The coop itself is all wired up, so that nothing can get in once they are locked in for the night. We have to make a new roosting bar: the one that came with the coop is too square and mounted too low, making clean-up a little problematic. We also need to build a run for them so that during the day they can have some more space to wander around, as the coop is, well, a bit tight to be the full-time home for the three ladies.

Finally, as Yom Kippur approaches, it is perhaps relevant to link to this post which explains "kapores", a somewhat controversial custom, of using a chicken to help cleanse one of one's sins during the Jewish high holy days. Faithful readers of Bexley Chickens can be assured that neither Joan, nor Peggy, nor Betty will be participants in this practice.

King of the hill, chicken-style

Genius camera work:

The coop is in the run!

On wednesday Andrew critter-proofed the coop (hardware cloth stapled over every opening) and we put it in the dog run. Now we have to figure out how to keep hawks out of the run and chickens inside the run. While the girls are small they'll be pretty good fliers. They're flying all over the 'brooder' (aka Rubbermade tub) this week.

Slate Run Chickens

Over the weekend we visited some chickens from the past at the Slate Run Historical Farm. These chickens are from the 1800s. The speckled one in the top/left of the picture is a Wyandotte, like Joan.