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SOOOO. I teach Special Ed, and this year, my students, my TA, and raised some chickens who we'd had as eggs in an incubator. Out of 12, 5 of them hatched. :}

Well, over Memorial Day weekend, I took the two who had hatched before the break home, and I got attached because I am a big softy.

I thought I wouldn't be able to keep them...but it turns out, I could.

I wound up with the two I had home, the three who hatched over the weekend, and three from other classes.

EIGHT IN TOTAL.

I think I'm nuts. Anyway, they're adorable.



Those are the first two. Gunther and Vanilla Ice. My students named them. Vanilla Ice might get a rename.



Four new ones. Nugget, and three with no name. I'm thinking one should be Greymalkin.



Here's Vanilla Ice, Gunther, and two new ones. They're Omelet and Sammich. Sammich is the big fat yellow one, and Omelet is the little fluffy yellow one. He's a friggin' pisser.

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My students LOVED them. I teach ninth grade boys, and one of them kissed them good bye today and told Omelet he loved him. It was adorable.

Lol. Funny, just a few days ago I was walking by my university's co-op sustainable living area and they had a few chickens wobbling about outside. I never thought I'd find chickens to be cute, but they kind of are. razz

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT STUDIO CHICKENS!

I work in an artist's home studio, and his wife had a hankerin' for some chickens. She bought some peeping little fluff balls in the hopes that they would become chickens. And because they also have a cat, the peepballs spent a lot of time in the studio.

Audrey, Gregory Peck and Julie grew up to be fat healthy chickens. Julie died a few months ago, impacted egg. Replacement peepballs were procured, so now there's Fluffy and another who's name I cannot remember. The Big Chickens are annoyed by the Peepers, Audrey is quite the b***h and chases them a lot.

Things I learned:

- properly socialized chickens will sit in your lap and let you pet them. Except Audrey, she's a b***h.

- there is such a thing as a "chicken purr."

- Chickens will continue to "peep" adorably well into their awkward gangly teenage years. You will see an ugly bird that is 60% feet, 20% neck, with a queer looking little head and it will still "peep!" at you.

- peepballs are perfectly content to sit on your shoulder and peep, so feel free to play Kentucky Pirate when no one is looking.

Enjoy your chickens!

I honestly have no idea. Part of the reason I took them home is because some aren't the most hearty looking of chickens, so I was afraid that if they went back to a farm, they'd wind up dead because they weren't worth keeping. (Omelet is very tiny, and sometimes he can't keep his balance. He'll wobble about like a little drunk. But, I <3 him, so I fear he'd be off'd by a farmer.) I have no experience whatsoever with chickens. I hope they don't get incredibly large.

Some of them, particularly Omelet, are fond of being picked up and held in one hand while on their back so I can stroke their belly. Omelet falls asleep like this and will cheep contentedly.

If I have roosters, I'll find a farm for them. I think they're a bit too much trouble for me. Chickens are fine though. I won't know what gender they are until they're older. Right now, they're pretty freaking adorable. Sammich always gets doo doo caught in his feathers, which is kind of gross. And Omelet never stops peeping. He's a non-stop peep machine. The others are pretty quiet though.

Holy crap did I have a scare this morning. One of my chickens (Omelet) couldn't get up, and he was being kind of ... run over by the other chicks. So I took him out and put him in his own container. I was pretty sure he was going to die. ;_;

When I came home, he was strutting about happy as you please, eating.

I believe he had been constipated, and much to my relief, he can now poop perfectly fine. (Whew.)

Oh No! I'm so sorry for you. I know how much you love these little guys. sad

I'm so sorry! Don't worry, I'd be crying my a** off. Although, I couldn't help laughing a bit when I read you were going to eat chicken for dinner. :p