Chickens do grow so darned quickly.  My baby chickens aren’t babies any more.  They’re all so funny to watch.

The little black and white Dominques are wild as can be.  They run into the far egg box every time they think I’m coming to see them.  All six of them huddle inside the egg box and leave one chicken to watch to see what I’m doing.  They also all sleep in this one egg box.  I sure hope they figure out some day soon that they’re supposed to be sleeping on the roost and laying eggs in the egg boxes.  Of course, the roosters won’t be laying eggs anywhere! 

The bantams . . what funny chickens!  They’re still pretty scared of me too.  The rooster, Roscoe, sleeps on the second floor alone  . . every night!  He sits right on the very edge . . I wonder how he keeps from falling off when he sleeps.  I know I sure would if I were right on the edge of something trying to sleep!  The other four . . just like the Dominiques . . they sleep in a nesting box instead of on the roosts.  It’s funny because out of the 5 bantams, there are four white ones and one brown one.  There are four Silkies and only Roscoe isn’t a Silky.

Then there are the 6 Red Stars, the 7 Production Reds and the 1 Buff Orpington.

Can you see how much larger that one Buff Orpington is?  She is so much bigger than the other chickens.  Look how much thicker her legs are!  (And, then, let’s not talk about thick legs, ok?  She’s probably saying . . hey, have you looked at YOUR thighs lately?)   I feel kind bad for her.  She has to duck to get through the little door that leads outside for them.  Our other chickens don’t even come close to needing to duck.

It’s funny that the different breeds have such different personalities.  The one Buff is scared of me.  She watches me and she doesn’t run or fly away from me but she won’t come up to me unless I have food in my hand.  No way will she let me pet her.  The production reds think they’re going to scare me.  When I reach to pet them, they peck me about three times in a row and then they stand there and let me pet them.  The Red Stars . . they’re every bit as sweet as my Red Stars in MO.  They would stand there all day and let me pet them.  They fly right into my arms when I open the coop door.  I wish all my chickens were so sweet and loving.

But, mostly . . I wish they would start laying eggs!  I’m thinking I should start getting eggs from the Red Stars about mid July and it will be probably the first part of August before the Production Reds start laying and probably mid-August before the Buff Orpington starts laying and, I’m afraid  I’m being a bit optimistic about those dates.  The bottom line is . . I’ll get eggs when they start laying . . not much I can do about hurrying them along.