"You'uns jest hafta git along" is what Rick's Grandma Maggie told us after we got married. Today, I reminded my four little pullets that the same applies to them. Yes, two newcomers have joined Vita and Cinnamon. They came from Lattin's Cider Mill and Farm in southeast Olympia, WA. Energetic and pretty, and a little older than the two remaining original chicks, they are as yet unnamed. Any suggestions?
Update!! The Cochin, being of Chinese ethnicity, is now called Ming. Thanks to my neighbor Sue who came over to visit the new chicks today. It's the ideal name for this soft, elegant little bird.
Perhaps it was the indignity of being lodged in a kiddie wading pool decorated with be-goggled duckies and plump fishies. Or maybe they really had not wanted to leave their nice airy pens out in the country. I don't know. But, after I took these photos, it was suddenly Bold & Tough Newcomers vs.The Innocents. See the posture and glint in the eye of the black and white Barred Plymouth Rock pullet? Not to mention her well-developed beak?? Poor Vita got a big beak pinch in the neck, which stunned her – and then there was a crowd-mentality chasing rush toward Cinnamon (seen in the photo on the left, looking young and innocent indeed), who is good at dodging, fortunately. I whisked the younger ones out of the kiddie pool and into their cardboard box, their haven. Thus ended playgroup attempt #1.
The second new pullet, seen on the left, above Cinnamon, is a golden-laced Cochin. This breed is known for being gentle and friendly, but not particularly prolific in the egg-laying department. They are irresistibly soft and fluffy with extraordinary coats and feathered legs.
I will tak
e a portrait of "the girls" when the stresses of habitat changes are smoothed over, OK? The chicken tractor is nearly ready for the foursome to move into. My plan was to place them in it simultaneously, so that there was no established territory for any of them. Maybe my novice chicken psychology will work, and they'll all git along.
(On the right, Vita the Speckled Sussex treads lightly behind the Barred Rock. The golden-laced Cochin is in the foreground.)
Jocelyn Curry 
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