Twelve days of Chickens…Julie

I'm skipping ahead of Harry's post today. He will catch up with his Twelve Days Of Chickens after me!  Very early this morning I was so surprised by Julie Newmar, our Brown Leghorn, that I wanted to do a post on her as soon as possible!

Newest Layer!

The first thing I do every morning is go into the run and check on my lovely chicks.  As  I opened the door to go in, I caught myself just in time, to NOT step on Julie's first egg.  Fortunately I was looking down and saw her egg, in the middle of the run. It was right in front of the door where I'd normally be clomping in with my boots or heavy shoes. The only reason I was able to catch myself and not step on it was because it was white. Almost glowing white. It stood out from everything else as if it was under a spotlight. One of my readers suggested she wanted to make sure I didn't miss it…kind of like a calling card! And that, pretty much in a nutshell, describe Julie's personality. 

Beautiful chick!

As a newly hatched chick she had the color and markings of a chipmunk. Cute and fluffy as heck. The time spent in the brooder was uneventful for her -that should have set off warning bells for us. When the chicks moved into the coop-et then trouble started. She was one of the first ones to try to fly out every time we opened it. It took both of us to catch her in the coop-et to go outdoors playtime. Two of us to get her back in, ugh! She was incredibly fast and seemed to read our minds and be ready for us!

I'll take care of that!

 

Will do tricks for food...

Since she's moved to the big-girl hen house things haven't changed much in her personality. She was the first one to slip out the door and run around the yard, the first one to fly up and sit on my shoulder when I was holding food. She loves food, and she seems to know ahead of everyone else whether it's something super special like grapes or something just so-so like celery. If she really wants it, she's there first…in it, on it, on top of it, whatever it takes to get there. She's not rude though, she doesn't peck  or squawk at the others to get them out of the way. She's just small and fast, really fast and knows how to handle those wings and feet of hers. I have heard that brown leghorns will always be the trouble-makers. She's not a trouble-maker just more of a trouble-finder.

Just looking around.

Her BFF is Carmen. I think it has to do with size more than anything else. When they first starting staying outside they would roost together and stay together while free-ranging. For awhile they were the only two that would go after worms and other buggy stuff. The rest seemed to be scared of those wiggly things. Now they ALL eat worms, roly-polies  slugs…gross! They don't hang together quite so much since they're older. But they do have some type of chicken telepathy and if one finds something good the other is over there in a flash. Also, when I'm trying to get the flock back into the hen house Julie and Carmen are no where to be found. I won't go into great detail about what goes on inside the run while I'm hunting for them but the other four have this GAME nailed. When I get back with Julie and/or Carmen the other chickens really take advantage of my being a little 'winded' and are set to make their escapes while I'm trying to get the other two in. If I have time to play their GAME  I do. If not they go in, one at a time, with the door locked behind them!

Let's play!

SWEET JULIE!

She really is a sweet chicken…they all are! She just wants to make sure you know she's around even if it's right smack in the middle chasing her!   'Nah nah ne can't catch  me'!



...as for eggs in the middle of the run we're going to see if she catches on and lays in the nesting boxes like the barred rocks. If not I'll try the plastic egg trick and see if that works. The run is no place for tiptoeing around!





 Liz-