First Sleep Over

Spencers had the chickens over last night for their first sleep over and we had a great time. William the cat was sufficiently curious and spent the evening in the basement, but after much observation, I think he poses little threat. He stalks a good game, but then retreats in confusion. Regardless, we don't leave him alone with them.

We let Emerson stay up later than usual to play with the chicks. He was obsessed with teaching them to roost on the dowel Christine installed. By the end of the night, Charlie was pretty good at it! We capped off the night by singing a lullabye to them and Emerson gave us strict instructions to not watch TV because the chickens were sleeping. We heeded his advice.

Harriet and I woke early and spent some quality time with the chicks. I felt it was the first time she really had interest in the chicks and kept pointing to one palm saying, "Chicken - hand - now."

The chicks seem to be changing every day and some personality traits are developing. A few observations:

• For lack of a name, I'll call her Dottie, sleeps all the time. More often than not, I see her cashed out, head on the floor, zonked out.
• Munta seems to be the bully for now. She gets right up in some of the other chicks faces, and they stare at each other until Munta starts pecking at them. It's funny to watch how the other chick reacts.
• Sally is FAST! She runs around the bin alot and seems to evade our greedy hands.
• Red is regal as ever, her lovely little feathers so prevalent in a bin full of fuzz.
• Charlie's feathers seem to already be lined with white, same for Dottie's eventual markings.

Their grooming characteristics are starting to show. There is a lot of rubbing the sides of their heads on the ground. My favorite though, is after a good meal, they delicately clean their tiny little feathers.
They aren't as poopy this morning as they've been in previous days. I tried to change the paper towels ALOT. I think maybe at night they are sitting in the poop that's already there, rather than getting their own poop stuck on their vents. Either way, they poop alot! Man! They do love that sock to sleep on though. Adorable.