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I was going through some older chick photos and videos and came across some unpublished ones that I still think are cute.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.
