Home Again

I'm home and it's back to reality around here ... at least for me, Dave is technically still on vacation. He went land lookin' today and I haven't talked to him as of this posting, so I don't know if he found his promised land yet or not.

For me, it's time to resume my occupation and my Dadnifinous duties around Pure Florida. You may remember that my favorite banty hen produced 6 chicks a few weeks ago.

You may also remember my decision to "let chickens be chickens" and give her freeranging little feathered butt a chance to raise them herself.

A few days later, there were only 4 chicks, so I reluctantly moved Mom and the survivors into the moveable chicken tractor cage and put it near the house. My thinking was the porch hounds would keep stray cats and 'coons away.

A few days later there were 2 chicks in the chicken tractor and no sign of digging into the pen, so I figured some of my ratsnake pals may have come back to visit.

So now, we have two chicks living in our living room in a large laundry basket with a cover. They are cute and noisy with unpronounceable (for me) Lord of The Rings names given by Junior and Emma.

I only brought the chicks inside, so the momma hen is back in the yard suffering from postpartum depression. Not really of course, she's back to her old carefree self and is teasing the roosters unmercifully.

She may be a reincarnation of a cheerleader I knew in highschool ...

but I digress. Now that I am a surrogate Hen, I have to take them outside and scratch around barefoot in the dirt with them to show proper technique. They've caught on quite well and seem to enjoy flinging dirt and leaves until they have a hole to nestle into.

At that point they just sit and eat every ant or other insect that walks by.

Obviously one of them is better adapted to being a chick in the wild. That's pretty good camouflage that INSERT UNPRONOUCEABLE LOTR NAME HERE is showing.

They instinctively get a little nervous when the Mississippii Kite flies overhead, but nobody panics and runs around like a chicken with it's head cut off. They just hunker down.

A little comforting and clucking from the surrogate hen (that would be me) seems to calm them down and before long they are getting snoozy in the warm sand and leaves.

Scratching for bugs and avoiding hawks is hard work and they usually end a session with a little nap.

Curiously, while I was away Emma has become the new surrogate hen and last night she couldn't wait to show me how the chicks would follow HER all around and even come running when she called.

I think I've lost them to her, but I have to admit it was pretty cute to see them running to keep up with her.

At least I still have the baby turtles.