The Fellowship of the Wing -

Well, we’ve done it. We’ve become chicken owners. This weekend, we received half of our chicken order. Because we ordered multiple breeds of chickens, and because apparently you cannot control the nature of chicken birth, it was quite a process getting them. We enquired about our winged friends after 5 weeks of waiting as we were told the waiting period was 5-7 weeks and we were impatient. We were then told that the Pandovana and the Maran were ready, the Serama and the Cemani were on back order, the Legbar wouldn’t be ready until summer because the rooster was being “uncooperative” and the Easter Egger was a mystery.

Week 7, we hadn’t heard anything so we enquired again. At that point we were told we could come get some of our chickens.

The 30 minute drive there, we all discussed a name for our new flock of chickens. Names such as “the Bird Herd”, “Kentucky Fried Chickens” and “Pentatonchicks” were met with groans and eye rolls. And when we arrived, we had not come to a decision.

Once there, we waited impatiently while the Chicken guru decided which chickies to give us. And when she finally came out, she presented us with 3 chickens much older than the little yellow fluff balls we were imagining. In fact, they were 3-4 week old chicks. Almost ready to come out of their brooder. You see, because the maran and the Pandovana were born the earliest, she had to match an Easter Egger with them that was similar in size so that they would kind graduate from the brooder at a similar time and become a happy little flock.

The Serama was ready, but because they are the smallest chickens in the world, they are super fragile as babies. In fact, she said she often has people writing her a week later saying they inadvertently killed their baby Seramas and she decided she was only going to give them to pick up orders this year instead of mail delivery. (I am still baffled by the idea of mailing live chicks). Hence, even if we put a 3 week Serama in with the 3 chickens we had, it might struggle. So, the answer was to wait until the Cemani and Legbar were ready, and then put an older Serama in with the younger Cemani and Legbar. And those three would become another flock.

Needless to say, I came out of this whole thing with a ton of anxiety. As soon as these little feathered beasts were given to me with a wave, I realized I had no idea how to keep these living beings alive. I was faced with even more anxiety than when the doctors handed me my first human child and sent me on my way to keep him alive and healthy. Which is saying a lot because even though I read a ton of books on childrearing and parenthood, my kids didn’t do anything those books said they would.

But suddenly I looked at these things and all I could see were heat lamp fires and bird diseases and them being too hot or too cold and proper nutrition, and predators swooping down from the sky and holes bigger than a half inch being big enough for killers. And I looked at these 3 little chirpers and I wasn’t sure which one I would be okay with sacrificing. Because the odds are against me that all are going to stay alive to live long chicken lives.

But as we drove away with our peeping puppies in between the boys in the back seat, Calvin announced “what about the Fellowship of the Wing?” And we all celebrated! And then I said “ooooh, how about the FOWLership of the Wing?” And they all told me to stop. But at that point I figured I was in it now as a chicken owner and I just had to see where this path took me.

And so far they are a fun group to watch. Donovan’s Pandovana is the oldest. He’s all white and has an adorable little mohawk which will one day be a full Mozart style head of hair. This one seems the most mature as far as disposition. The chicken guru says she thinks it’s a hen so we have a good chance of having at least 2 hens in our flock of 6 birds (Legbar is the only one we are certain of at birth).

My Easter Egger is black and grey and white and is the craziest. It appear to be the bravest of the bunch and the most energetic. Hopping around and checking everything out. It also is a bit of a bully and likes to jump on top of the others like Mario and his goombas and has a thing for pecking food off the other’s faces. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one turned out to be rooster.

Tyler’s Maran is mostly all black has me the most concerned. It has these derpy little side wings that are adorable but it also sleeps a lot more than the other two. But at the point when I really start to worry about it, it chippers up and eats and drinks and looks around. So I guess we shall see about that one.

At this point, we are in the process of trying to tame, train, and bond with them. Which is going very slow. They are very afraid of us still. At some point we need to get them comfortable with our hand. But right now we put a hand in and they all run away, one jumping over the other trying to be the chicken to get into the farthest corner of the box. And considering the box is only about 3×2 feet, there really isn’t anywhere to go. But they try and they put so much effort in to, they eventually exhaust themselves and fall asleep. So yeah, it’s not going great.

And in the meantime, we are in a race to get them trained, tamed and bonded before they go out in the coop. Which isn’t even finished. And like a mama who is doesn’t want to let her child out in to the big bad world, I’m terrified to let them out there. But I have a feeling that my cats wouldn’t be too happy with 6 chickens living inside the house. Not to mention the constant cleaning of the poop. So far the cats are doing okay. Cuddles gave them a couple looks but can now care less. Gingerbread, the feral huntress cat wanna be, was my biggest concern. She took a look and then spent an entire day hissing at us for bringing such beasts into her house. But has since calmed down and accepted her adoptive siblings. Although we still keep the birds shut up at night just in case Gingerbread gets any ideas.

I’ll keep you informed on how this new adventure unravels. It’s a doozy!