Happy Chickens

Now that we're having consistently nice weather, I've been gradually plugging away at my outdoor to-do list.

The most urgent item on the list was moving the baby chicks outside to their coop.  For the next few weeks, it will still be too cool at night for the chicks to be outside, but I was absolutely desperate to get them out of the laundry room!  So we compromised.  The chicks have been happily playing outside during the day the last two days, and coming in at night.  This way, they can get all their energy out during the day and actually sleep at night inside, instead of being restless indoors all day and night, and running around the laundry room at all hours.

They seem to love it outside, and they are eager to explore their coop, the chicken run, and the rest of the yard, when I let them.  Lola hasn't exactly warmed up to them yet.  She seems to view them as small, annoying intruders, and she clucks pathetically at us when we put them in with her, and then stays on the opposite side of the run.  I try to tell her that they will have to get to know each other and be friends eventually, but she doesn't seem convinced.

She thinks that we are her flock now, I think, and she actually runs toward the kids now, instead of away from them (unless they are trying to pet her, then she runs away again).  She hardly takes her eyes off us when we are out near her.  I think in this picture, she is begging us to let her out.

Samson is fascinated that the little fluff-balls from the laundry room get to play outside with him now.  He is incredibly sweet and gentle with them, and they can all share the yard together peaceably (hooray!), as long as I am there to supervise Samson-Lola relations.  She runs.  He chases.  I scold.  He stops chasing and looks at me like, "Well, what do you expect me to do when she runs?"

Unfortunately, at this point, the chicks all look so much alike that they have remained nameless.  My husband finally got on board with the naming and suggested "Figaro" from the Pinnochio movie as a blanket chicken name.  I guess they can all be Figaro.