The girls are almost outgrowing their space here. In about four more weeks they will be going off to the big girl farm.
Millie has escaped a couple more times and Gertie none so far. I think she just likes her home, no need to leave. They both have beautiful little tails now, really starting to look like chickens!
And they don't stay still much so it was extremely difficult getting clear photos. But here they are...
The chicks tend to get a little rambunctious before bedtime, so we try to dim the lights when we get home to let them know it's almost lights out. Once they start making sleepy sounds, then we know they're ready for bed. Here are their special sleepy noises...(it is a long video, don't say I didn't warn you. AKA, no, I will not give you your two minutes back.)
I was going through some older chick photos and videos and came across some unpublished ones that I still think are cute.
I remember when they were sooo fluffy and tiny!
And this was when I just taught them how to drink water. I had to dip my finger into the water so a drop would form and I'd bring it up to their beaks. They'd drink it and eventually understood they could drink it out of the feeder themselves. But they would tilt their heads back so far they'd stumble, it was so adorable. Here is Millie being a little overzealous with her drinking...
And here is one of them when they started preening. Aww...I miss when they were this little.
In the car going home, discussing how one of our couple friends are like us but opposite. The husband is organized and follows the rules, like me, and the wife is a free-spirit that is spontaneous, like my boo.
Boo: It's so much easier for the woman to be spontaneous.
Me: So what you're saying is, it's sooo hard being you. {giggle} Boo: {also laughing} Yes. You want to put me in a box. Me: Well, you want to pull me out of my box. Why do you want to pull me out of my box? It's my home. Boo: Why do you want to put me in a box? Me: Can't we just make a bigger box?
The end. (Not really, we still have this conversation in different forms.)
I discovered this by accident while cleaning up their home. I was putting something away under the sink and Gertie couldn't see me, so she started jumping/flying up to see over the tub. I thought it was sooo cute, she loves me!
So now we turned it into a game. I duck behind the tub and then she scurries around trying to find me. Sometimes she jumps, sometimes she just tries to peek her head over the wall, and sometimes she perches on the rod to peek over. My goal is to get her to jump/fly. And I'm usually pretty successful...
Gertie is soooo good at balancing, she doesn't want to leave my arm! I try to shake her off several times but she doesn't want to go. So we bring her down to the helipad! J/k. She just flapped her wings a lot and it was generating a lot of wind.
So I'm trying to teach Millie how to descend gracefully like Gertie, but it's a struggle. She's too nervous and she doesn't really grip onto you when she's perching, which leaves her so unstable and shaky, she just wants to jump off.
Anyway, she's so big now! 5 weeks and look how tall she is.
Me holding her with her dinosaur feet out.
Mwhahaha, you can't get away!
We let the chicks out of their "home" (a.k.a., the bathtub in the second bathroom) and put them on a blanket in the living room. They seemed to like it a lot. Much more freedom and it was a whole new world for them. We also discovered a fun little trick by accident. I made a circle with my thumb and pointer finger and Millie started pecking through it. (Most likely because it reminds them of their feeder.)
Also, today while I was working out, I heard Millie's crying chirp. It's the one she does when we take Gertie away for too long and she is sad. When I heard her, I instantly knew...she got out of the tub. I open the door and sure enough, there she is standing in the middle of the floor, looking so innocent and sad, with a big ol' pile of poo behind her. Of all the birds in the world, Millie, who is afraid to use her wings, actually figured out how to fly out of the tub. Shocked and maybe slightly proud she finally figured it out. Never underestimate the little ones.
Still scruffy around the neck, but she's catching up in size...
Gertie is curious and comes in for a closer look. Then she pecks my camera.
"You look shiny and tasty!"
Millie says, "I want to be curious too!"
Gertie says, "Copy cat."
Gertie is plateauing, size-wise, but they're both stll growing pretty fast...and they're so much stronger. In another month, they will be close to adult size! Isn't she a pretty little chicken? I can't believe she started out as a wobbly little gray fluff ball.
Side note: "Bigger, faster, stronger" a.k.a., BFS, was a gym program at my high school. It was mostly filled with meathead jocks who wanted to spend their hour of gym class in the weight room. Mildred and Gertrude do not pump iron. They are LADIES.
Now that the chicks are 3 weeks old, we have set up a dowel for them to roost (perch) on. They really didn't like it at first and didn't know what to do. They'd just charge over it to get to the other side. Until I started bribing them with food! Truly my babies.
I tricked them into standing on it by hand feeding them just out of their reach and now they're becoming pros! Surprisingly, Millie is better at it than Gertie.
I haven't seen my little fuzzy babies sleeping while roosting yet, but I keep peeking hoping to catch them.
Our little chickies had an eventful weekend. They met my girlfriends and their beaus on Friday and then they met my parents on Saturday.
Every day they seem to get a little bigger and more feathers are starting to show. Sometimes Gertie looks like she has a mohawk. A contortionist with a mohawk.
"I'm not upside down, you're upside down."
"I'm ready for take off! Just kidding, I'm just pooing."
We still haven't been able to get Millie to fly, but she is starting to flap her wings. Maybe soon!
Well, sort of. We got Gertie to fly again; pretty well, I might add. So then we (and by we, I mean my boo, because I am like overprotective momma bird) tried to get her to fly from the top of their automatic water dispenser thing-a-ma-bobbie.
She decided she needed a nap before going back home.
Both of them look a little bigger, but Millie is still the puny one. She was extra spastic today, and not so photogenic.
They love to huddle in corners, always facing the wall.
But good ol' Gertie was just fine with the attention. Her wings are almost all "revealed." I don't know what the proper term is. She has a pretty impressive wingspan too. I'll try to capture that next time.
I'm not sure why it looks like I have the death grip on Gertie, but I swear I was not hurting her. Her neck is actually about the size of my thumb--the fluff is deceiving.
Happy election day! I hope you all exercised your privilege to vote in this election. :)
Now back to the chickies. Gertie is getting bigger and her tail is becoming more prominent. She almost looks....fat! They both look kind of tubby when they are sitting.
"I'm not fat...I'm just fluffy!"
Millie, not too much progress, but she's starting to get an itty bitty tail.
Mini badunkadunk.
And though she's still incredibly spastic, I managed to find...her sweet spot! Just pet her neck and she will become so relaxed and poof, she's asleep.
Finally, one week old. I wish they could stay this age *forever*! Today, I came home to a nice surprise. Gertie has a tail! Hehe. See the little feathers?
Gertie sees her tail feathers and thinks, "That's new!"
So even though I know Millie is a late bloomer compared to Gertie, I thought maybe I could help nudge her into at least trying to fly. Utter. Failure. She wouldn't do it and she wouldn't even flap her wings. She wouldn't even make the small little hop one inch off the ground.
I present to you: Millie in the feature film called, "I don't know how to use my wings yet. Please let me down."
No matter how many times I look at the baby chicks, it never gets old. They're just an unlimited supply of adorable and they always make me smile. I LOVE them. Millie is still a nervous-Nelly, but she's starting to come around. Her wings are starting to look like how Gertie's looked on day 3. She's just a late bloomer. :)
Fluffy wings!
And big girl Gertie is training to fly...temporarily of course. Adult chickens are terrible flyers as you know, but when they're young they are pretty good, probably because they weigh so little.
And the BEST part of the day was getting Gertie to perch on my hand without squirming and her being brave enough to jump off and fly back home. This literally made me giddy.
P.S. - Don't mind the poop, lol. They are poop machines and I feel like their production schedule is growing exponentially. Babies.
Millie tries to crawl under Gertie. Gertie is so nonchalant.
Just like all babies, all they ever seem to do is eat, sleep, and poop. We have been trying to hold them more with hopes that if they get used to it, they won't be so scared of people in general. It's hard though since they're little and to them we seem sooooo huge and scary.
Both of them are really starting to show their wings now! And I have no idea why but the wings make them look even more adorable. We will need to start covering their house because soon they will be able to fly!
The girls seem to be having a serious conversation.
The girls are starting to get their wings and figuring out how to use them. Gertie is definitely maturing faster and is more adventurous. She tries to fly every once in a while. I caught part of it in this video.
Millie is such a scaredy cat and frequently chirps loudly and in a panicky fashion. Her wings are just starting to show today, but she hasn't tried to fly yet. However, she does like to bother Gertie at all times. Millie likes to eat Gertie's food even though there's plenty of food all over the place. And when Gertie tries to sleep, Millie tries to snuggle with her, which annoys Gertie a lot. But it's so cute to watch them. :)
It's hard to believe it but though Millie and Gertie are only 3 days old, they have grown so much! They're both starting to get feathers on their wings, so they keep preening. Soon they won't have that cute little baby fluff we love so much.
I've had to clean Gertie quite a bit the last couple of days (pasting - it's gross, google it if you want), and when I take her out of their "home," Millie starts chirping like crazy. She's a bit protective, I guess.
Gertie is much calmer and okay with people holding her, which is probably a product of me having to hold her more to clean. Millie is still kind of jumpy if she hasn't been around people for awhile. But both calm down and fall asleep sooooo fast if you hold them for a few seconds. It's really adorable. We tried to capture it on video for you...
P.S. - Last night, I checked on them about a dozen times to make sure they were still breathing. :)
Introducing....Mildred & Gertrude, the dynamic chickie duo! Millie is a Golden Campine and Gertie is a Golden Lakenvelder. My boo surprised me with these two baby chicks for my 30th birthday. They are our first pets together and they are soooo adorable. And FLUFFY! They are only two days old and still learning how to keep their balance, so it's kind of fun to watch them try to walk around. They're personalities are already starting to show. Millie is kind of cranky and is the louder one of the two. Gertie is the troublemaker and curious about everything.
This is the very first sweater I ever knit. It is the "Provincial Waistcoat" by Mari Lynn Patrick from the Interweave Knits Winter 2006 Issue. I had practiced cable knitting on swatches when I first learned how to knit, but this was the first project that involved cables. Prior to this, I had only knit small things, like teddy bears, hats, and scarves. I spotted this issue of Interweave Knits in the bookstore and I was so motivated to knit a big girl project, I bought the magazine on the spot and went home to order the yarn I needed. The day the yarn arrived, I just HAD to get started right away. I casted-on about 10 times that night into the wee hours...I was still a newbie and tended to either not give myself enough slack or casted-on waaay too tight. Actually, I still do that now. Bad habit. But I was persistent and finished this sweater without starting any other projects (that's a big deal, other knitters know what I mean). To this day, it was still one of the most enjoyable projects. It was interesting to knit, the waist shaping was impeccable, and the yarn was really outstanding to knit with. Mari Lynn Patrick quickly became one of my all-time favorite designers. This sweater is in my closet today and sadly not worn as much as it deserves to be worn. But sometimes I find myself just letting my hand graze over it as I search for something to wear in the morning...I still love it even if it doesn't see the light of day.
It's hard to believe it but though Millie and Gertie are only 3 days old, they have grown so much! They're both starting to get feathers on their wings, so they keep preening. Soon they won't have that cute little baby fluff we love so much.
I had practiced cable knitting on swatches when I first learned how to knit, but this was the first project that involved cables. Prior to this, I had only knit small things, like teddy bears, hats, and scarves. I spotted this issue of Interweave Knits in the bookstore and I was so motivated to knit a big girl project, I bought the magazine on the spot and went home to order the yarn I needed.
