Playing with the Big Girls Now

It was a beautiful spring evening in the Fishers' backyard.

It was simply delightful to be outdoors...just to smell the fresh air, feel the slight breeze, enjoy the last rays of the day's sunshine, admire the lush green grass, and...but wait!  What are they looking at?!?!

Chicks!  These chicks!

If you've never had chicks, let me just tell you something:  it's amazing how fast they grow up.  Why, one minute you're rocking them to sleep in your arms while singing soft lullabies; and the next, you're saying goodbye and sending them out into the big wide world.  The world where the big boys await.

Or, in this case, the big girls.  And one big boy.  That black & white creature on the left is a rooster, and he's not afraid to say so.

I feel a little nervous about putting the chicks into the enclosure with the other chickens so soon, but I don't feel nervous enough about it to keep them on my porch.  A dozen days of dealing with their stink and mess was quite enough, thank you.  :)  Now their stink and mess can be outside, where any self-respecting hen keeps her stink and mess!  

I hope the chicks do well.  I hope their older comrades don't hen-peck them too much.  I hope the chicks don't squeeze under the fence and become a tasty chicken dinner for the dogs.  I hope they don't freeze (which would be tough to do since the temperature is 50 degrees at night and in the 70s during the day).  I hope they live long and prosper (and lay many eggs).  

Farewell, chicks!  Have fun playing with the big girls--and becoming them yourselves!