Look what RW surprised me with yesterday! A beautiful pair of chickies (I’m only allowed two, within the confines of the city of Pocatello). The little yellow fluffer is a buff orpington. The wild looking chickie pie with the chipmunk cheeks is an ameraucana. The crazy looking, mustard yellow chickie is a vintage toy Q sent me for Easter. Ain’t it sweet? It’s not as high maintenance as the living breathing sort of baby chicken. Andddddddd.
It did not utilize my hand as one would a Vietnam latrine which was kind of nice (hot water soapy soapy).
I’m showing you lots and heaps and mondolicious amounts of photos of these sweet babies because soon, very soon, they will enter into their awkward adolescent stage of feather growing and then when I show photos of them you’ll groan and say:
GOOD LORD! WHEN WILL JILLIAN QUIT SHOWING US PHOTOS OF HER UGLY HENS. THEY ARE LIKE HORRENDOUS SCABS ON THE SURFACE OF THE TECTONIC PLATES OF PLANET EARTH. SIGH. GROAN. GNASHING OF TEETHIES. OUR EYES ARE BLEEDING.
Some of you are less melodramatic and you’ll just say:
THOSE ARE CHICKENS THAT ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE.
And then you’ll move on to internet shopping or you’ll feed your children chicken tenders whilst in a state of ugly chicken photo revenge. And then you’ll feel guilty for feeling so vengeful and actually acting on those emotions and you’ll eat chocolate.
It’s best I show you images of them when they are cute and sweet.
Oui oui? Oui oui.
They are tiny enough that they fit, rather perfectly and fluffaliciously in one hand. And they like to be snuggled. In fact, that’s the best thing about having only two chickies. You can handle them profusely and make friends with them very well and then they’ll turn out to be the friendliest chickens ever and you can teach them to fetch newspapers and the like. You can maybe even walk them on leashes, down the street. Or pop them in the panniers on your bicycle and pedal about town (because people already think you’re a bit of a kook and adding a chicken to the mix won’t really change their current opinion of you).
I confess. I am dreadfully fond of the amercauna chick. She reminds me of an actual game chick. RW and I used to hatch our own quail and pheasant with the help of an incubator and their initial markings and downy chick fluff looked similar to this little baby’s plumage. Plus. Just LOOK at those ridiculous cheeks! So goochie-goo!
Little baby buff orpington is darling and looks just like a classic Easter chick. I hope she lays chocolate eggs. Dark chocolate eggs. Preferably 70% cocoa.
I still haven’t decided on names for the girls. Perhaps you could help me with that? Do you have any name suggestions? I’ve collected the following names in my possibility pool, thus far:
Loretta, Belinda, Amelia, Esmerelda, Lucy, Beatrice, Gertrude, Ramona, Hafwen, Burda, Hermione
I’ve been calling them both Cutiebutt. They’re getting confused. The sooner we name them, the better.
We’ve introduced them both to the dogs! I’d like to be able to let them range in the yard for part of the day when they are mature ladies who sit on the grass with their legs crossed while they take their tea. So the dogs need to be friends to the chickens and I believe in working on pet relations right off the bat since I think a pet owner can teach existing pets to live peacefully with anything as long as the introduced pet is as young as possible during initial contact. It’s going to be interesting teaching Farley to coexist with chickens as he is a highly trained, strongly instinctual and wonderfully masterful bird hunting dog.
FARLEY. CHICKENS ARE FRIENDS NOT FOOD.
Penelope is quite interested in her new feathery friends and runs away smartly each time she gets pecked in the nose.
Just to prove and demonstrate the control we have over Farley as his masters I’ve included these snapshots of him actually face to face with one of the chicks. It’s quite rare to see a bird dog in a situation like this. In the above photo, a chick is actually sitting on his paw. My camera didn’t capture how Farley was quaking and shivering but trust me, it took an amazing amount of self control on his part to listen to my voice and not snap this baby up in his mouth.
The fact of the matter is that we really trust him under the control of our commands. And he trusts us and obeys us quite unconditionally. For this reason I know that we will have a bird dog existing with mature hens in our yard some day very soon but I’ll be very cautious, regardless, when I’m mixing canine with poultry on our property.
I love these new chickies so much. I told RW that I’d like to sleep with them. Right here. In the bird nest atop my head. He said I’d probably squish them while in twitchy REM state. He’s probably right. For now, they are located in a brooding box with a heat lamp in my studio. I get to listen to them peep and whistle while I work. And from time to time, I stroll over and pet them and hold them between soldering and sawing. It’s quite delightful and it seems perfectly springy.
1. Do you ever look down at the boxes of raspberries at the grocery store and feel the wild and crazy urge to open up five of them, snatch them by the fist full and greedily shove them in your mouth? Raspberries are the only food I cannot savor. I find I am downright rash and voracious when consuming them. I can’t control myself. I’m like a wolf on a bison carcass.
2. Don’t you feel like springtime is lifting you up and out of the boggy winter blues you were experiencing in February? I feel edified. I feel blooming. I’ve been feeling so wintery boggy and grubby in my heart and soul that I feel undone or like I need to be undone and crumbly and dilapidated so that I can feel the satisfaction of being put back together again, pushed into uprightness and the solidness of being glad minded once more. With the arrival of spring, I can’t help but feel bright and shiny. Constantly. It’s so good and holy to have a glad heart.
Perhaps it’s the joy of the Lord
strengthening me from the marrow of my bones all the way out to the surface of my skin.
Or maybe it’s my Aveda face wash.
Either way. I’m glad it’s spring. I’ve got tulips in my heart and daffodils in my soul.
3. I had a letter arrive from one of my best Saskatoon friends yesterday. It made me so glad. Letters from Canada make me feel connected to home. It’s like there’s a pinch of Canadian air wrapped around the hand writing of a dear friend. I could almost feel the wind coming off the Saskatchewan River and tousling my hair about my face. I could almost smell the wet, black earth of the wheat fields — could see the furrows rising up and dropping down like vast swatches of wide wale corduroy. Most of all, I’m certain that when I looked up from reading, I could see the living skies in three dimension, sinking low to anoint my temples and widen my gaze. I’m a bit homesick these days. Homesick for the Great Northern Plains and my sisters.
4. I’m quite excited and SOMEWHAT nervous about this but I would like to share with you the fact that I have secured for myself an antelope tag in Wyoming for 2010 and I will be, if I am brave enough in the moment to pull the trigger and involve myself further with my food and subsistence living, taking my own antelope this year. Every time I think about it I feel like I’m sitting on the edge of my seat. It’s so crazy. But it feels so right and responsible. If you haven’t read the personal essay I wrote on the topic of hunting, you should! You may read it HERE.
5. I’m so glad to be home. I missed you.
xxxx
The Noisy Plume
I missed you, too!
I love your chickies and the yellow one instantly made me think of the name Lucille.
I think for the other — Amandine.
Just what came into my being when I saw them.
Love you!
xo
M.
LADY
those chickies are the cutest cutiebutts i've seen in a looong time. and tell farley i think he's a good boy and very very smart for not munching on his new chickie sisters. loving your green sweater too, and glad you're back!
ps when are you back in toon town again? let me know….
xo
j
pps – word verification is bailset. you making pendants today?!
yippee for plume gables!
(& bravo to mr. farley, sheesh – control indeed)
“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.”
xox,
-lulu
Welcome home!
I love the new additions – since I have a little Lucy of my own I'm rather attached to that name, and think one of the little fluffybutts would make a lovely Lu.
Wishing you a wonderful day filled with spring's best blossoms.
you're kinda the spazziest spaz ever (hot water soapy soapy? ugly chicken photo revenge?). and i love it.
maybe you should name one of the chicklets Esme. (i know you won't, and that's probably good. i just felt like i had to suggest it, to stay loyal to our roots, paleface…)
personally the words "buff orpington" confuse and delight me. Miss Bufflette Orpingtonian, at your service.
mrap. i'm at work and everyone's clamoring for my paperwork attention. i gotta go. but i love you.
wow, love the chickies. love that Farley is being a good boy, what a boy!! lovely looking at the chickies, it would be so nice to do so… Please keep the pics coming before they start changing, 'cause yes, you're right, don't know if I could love awkward teenage angst chicks..xxx
What a treat, to see you again Miss Plume! I say bravo to Farley…most impressed. I'd name the chicks Simone and Josefina (Fina for short), and I am excited to see what they would look like when they grow up….I cannot say that I am excited about spring as much because we have no weather, you know how that is, but I am excited about the longer days!
xoxoxx
I would name them Franny and Zooey. I know Zooey was a boy but, hey, chickens don't care about those kinds of societal conventions. Cause that's just the way they roll.
Ooooooh I want chicks!!! Must say I am rather a fan of Hermione (drove past my old barn today where the horse I rode was called Harry Potter). And maybe Esmerelda? (Also adds in the name from She…)
Reading this post was such a delight! I'm going to go find some fuzzy babies to cuddle.
oh, and i'm so glad you're back as well!! how about claudine and cosette for the girls? just a little more ooh la la for plume gables!
Love the pictures and especially those of Farley being so well behaved. How about Tulula as a name ?
I love the chickies!!!! We used to have chicks and ducks and geese growing up and you're right, if you handle them they become your best friends. My sister and I cuddled and played with ours everyday and they followed us around everywhere we went- we loved being ducky/chicky mamas!
I really like MLJ's suggestion of Simone- (I've always wanted a pet named that). I also like Sabine, Lucy, and Carmelita (I was thinking for the chipmunky one).
Have fun with those babies! Happy Spring!
P.S. Farley is amazing 🙂
BlueButtonWood has me rethinking- how about Simone and Sabine! I assume these are girl chicks!
xx
BRAVO to Mr. Plume and Farley for taking the chicken plunge.
Lots of lovely names offered here…I'm just going to suggest grass clippings for them within a few days…they'll love the fresh salad supplement to their feed.
I'm predicting two adoring hens who will follow you about the yard, AND some recurring feather/poultry/nest/egg themes in your future designs….
We just ordered more turkey chicks…let me know when you need me to work on RW with THAT one…I thought we were keeping 2 or 3 turkeys over the winter, but we have EIGHT!! And now, none of these will be butchered…Doug has reasons to be attached to ALL of them, two toms and six hens.
Aaah, the love of poultry….
Have fun with your chickies!!!!! (And I love watching them grow and change–it all happens so FAST and just fascinates me–post all the photos you want!!)
Oh Jillian, they are the cutest! Yellow one is a ray of sunshine! Me wants, me wants 🙂
Superb job on mastering Farley. Those chickies can be very enticing. My 14-year-old kitty used to catch birds mid-air and leave them by the bedroom door as love offerings.
Enjoy the babies!
p.s. So glad you are back!
how cute!! when you said belinda, i immediately thought of billina from return to oz. and farley is amazing!!
Do you think that it's being CANADIAN that makes you so darn funny????! You always make me laugh. You're not a bad writer either!
(I know that I owe you a bread recipe:(( It will arrive very soon – it will be a surprise! You probably won't have time to make bread for a while anyway with those cute little chicks to distract you.)
love love love love love! I must come meet them for myself.
!!!
love the fluffballs and i'm glad you're home. farley is one self-controlled canine, WOW!
(also! JEALOUS. we can't have chickadees in the city proper.. just looked up the bylaws. *pout pout pout*)
(though we can have a flock of up to 40 pigeons)
Welcome to the family, cutiebutts. Can't wait to meet you.
I think you should name them The Chicken and The Egg. When they are older and you call them (and they WILL come!) you will always have an answer (albeit everchanging) to that age old question… and you shall be a sage…
Seriously, how can I possibly do anything but laugh right now? From the chicken tenders revenge comment to twitchy REM state? And the dogs pics!
I would love, love, love to have little chickies! However, your dogs have more self control then my children. We make trips to the local farm, and they shake like your doggies with the almost unbearable urge to squeeze said little baby chickies. This is a trait passed on by their mother, me, because I am a believer in squeezing all things cute.
I tell the kiddos everyday that I am going to squeeze them and put them in my pocket because they are so cute. If something is cute, it needs to be hugged! Random babies and kittens usually fall victim to my squeezes. So, we might have to wait a bit on the chicken front…
Well.
Canadian individuals DO tend to have a superfluously sublime sense of humor. I hope, that IF I should decide to become an American citizen someday, I don't lose my funny bone.
And I'm NEVER to busy to bake bread!
And I declare! These are some excellent name suggestions! I'm almost considering putting it to a vote here in the blogosphere.
RW just suggested we name the girls Omlet and Rodent. This is why I rarely let him name anything.
Also, I'd have totally used the name Talulah for a hen but for the fact that I have already a 1973 VW Bus named Talulah. It is an excellent name and would be perfect for a chicken (or my first born daughter….if ever I should have one of those things).
AND I read your comments out loud to Farley and he is proud as a peacock with you thinking so highly of his self control. In point of fact, he is even more determined to not eat the chicks.
Yay!
ooh, babies! i'm a new chick momma myself. we have 4 – 2 buff orpingtons named pot pie and chick pea, a black sex link chickie named pork chop, and a sweet little red one named gertrude (gertie for short). whatever you decide to name them, enjoy their cute fuzzy phase now, because in 2 weeks they will be awkward teenagers with weird feathers sprouting up everywhere and an intense urge to use their growing wings to fly up out of their box and wreak havoc on your studio…like mine have done to my kitchen a time or two 🙂
Happy to see you back. 🙂
What a wonderfully funny blog post, made me smile, inspite of our was 80 degree weather, now 30 degrees and snow weather. 🙁
May I suggest these names for your ever so cute little chickadees..
Little Peep Lulu for the chippy cheeky one and Sunydaze Isabella for the sweet fluffy yellow one..
They are so cute, and what wonderful control Farley has.
Hope your fluffy chicky day is wonderful! 🙂
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
How on earthy will I ever name the cutiebutts????
You hair is so Gaga-licious in that photo. You won me with Hermione. My literary obsession comes to the surface. Much love to the bird dog. Powerful schnozzle meets itty bitty beak. 🙂 good luck with names!
I am thinking something Hawaiian????
Ukelele????
Jemima?
You can show me pics of them peeps at any age. Adolescents are lovely in their own weird way.
A portrait of a great lady named Lucy remains among my FB photos. I'm always for that warm name–even if in this case it'd mean naming a chicken after a cat! (Which reminds me: I reckon I know what Pinkie thinks…oh dear!)
Maybe Lucy coupled with something exotic…or, wait til their personalities emerge.
What a delightful blog post! It made me feel like I did when my grandparents presented me with my first two Easter chicks. As I recall, one was pink and one green…but they survived the dye into brownhood.
XOXO
🙂
They ARE cutiebutts! But they look like an Ivy, Gertrude or a Bernice!!! Love them!
Warmly,
Leslie
We have a flock of 29 lovely chickens! A mix of Black Star,barred rock, white leghorns, Rhode Island red, Bantam, Orpingtions & one ameraucana (Named Chicken Hawk)are all laying beautiful brown, white and blue eggs. And we just added 5 more baby americanas, 2 Cochin with bell bottoms 😉 and one white rock.
Chickens are the Best!!
As for RW's suggestions: Coulda been worse, as in Deep-Fried and Bedbug. Just a thought.
😉
Baby announcement? Baby announcement?! You are a big tease!
Hannah has suggested the name "Hannah" for one of the babies. She considers it to be a perfect name.
I once had a fish named "Sushi" so I would suggest "Nugget" and "KFC". Rob and I will get along well.
Farley looks like our dog when we had chinchillas. His pupils would dilate and he would tremble and drool, but he somehow managed to obey and not eat them for dinner!
Congrats on the baby chickens!! If I had little girlie chicks I would name them Shirley and Mavis…
when i was a kid, i used to have a chicken named…ALOYSIUS. he was one of about 10. i would have chicken competitions that included timed races through mazes constructed of VHS tapes. despite their skill and agility, the poor chicks all met an untimely demise when a board they were using for shade collapsed upon them.
oh, jillian. be careful with those boards!
🙂
your chicklets are delightfull, a fluffy reminder of hope and renewal for spring, thanks for sharing , and hunting can be an act of responsiblity, thanking the spirit of the animal for nourishing oneself. I am not there yet but need not be at the moment as legumes and rice are plentiful and it suits. I have no problem with persons who hunt in a conscious manner ; ) xxx
Think of the girls they will grow to be…Perhaps naming them after your favourite or notorious aunts/grandmothers/etc.
I don't eat chicken but I love their eggs and chocolate eggs (70% for me too…) sound even better right now…
xo
Andrea
Welcome home Ms. Plume and family. The cutest, fluffiest little butts around. I love the names Wilhemina (Willy for short) and Hermann (Hermmy for short). Good luck…Hugs, Sally
So sorry, I forgot these babies were both girls – scratch Hermann and add Rosylyn (Rosy for short)
Your girls are adorable! Henrietta & Burda!
"Perhaps it's the joy of the Lord
strengthening me from the marrow of my bones all the way out to the surface of my skin.
Or maybe it's my Aveda face wash"
…BOTH! 🙂
You have the most eloquent way with words Jillian! I wish I could think as clearly as you write!
~Happy Spring~
Johanna
we missed you! my faves of the names are Lucy and Amelia. lovely names
i vote for ukelele and hermione. good ones.
roberta of course!
If your ameraucana starts to lay pink eggs {and I sosososo hope they do} I would sure like to talk to you about hatching some of them:) Apparently, as you must know, they are very uncommon now a days.
Best of luck with these sweet little peeps,
M
I am very very jealous of you and your chicks. Saskatoon will not allow me to have a coop in the city and I am so sad about that! I am also amazed by the chick on the dog paw. Our pup has a ways to go in training department 🙂
oh. oh.
cleo (for the crazy eye liner chick) and fran!!!
Oh my goodness!
These comments are amazing!
Thank you SO MUCH you wonderful wonderful human- being-chickie-loving-name-suggesting-folkertons!!!
At the moment I'm leaning towards Eileen and Rhonda. What do you think???
Oh they are so much fun to have around…we babysat a little yellow chick for about a month, she would sleep on our shoulders or chest alot and you'd hear these incredible sweet as pie noises coming from her, she was so sweet and pure I felt like my chest would burst open from adoration:D
She also totally bonded with our than bunny Beanie, she's sit onto of Bean and sleep and Bean would not move a muscle until she had a sufficent nap…Oh it broke my heart to give her back to the farm where she came from, but I had to she was apparently a little girls pet…sigh:D
*is currently in planning mode for her urban chicken experience, whether completely lawful or not*
ps. can we see your coop?
Yes!
You may see the coop!
Though it's actually called a Chicken Ark!
Oh hurrah, LOVE YOUR LITTLE CHICKS! They are adorable. And so much admiration for Farley, what an amazing dog!
Plume… remember these photos?
So lovely! and hahahaha… your dogs checking out the chicks! teeheee.