Col. Sanders is a Proud Papa

It was a warm, sunny day today, and the chicks are about 5 days old, so I moved their cage out near the chicken pen where the flock could get reacquainted. Eowyn was concerned about having any chickens even looking at her babies, but she settled down. Over the course of the afternoon, we let them all look at each other from a secure distance, then we let Eowyn out to walk around the grass with her children, then we let the others out while the little family was in the cage, and finally we removed all barriers and watched to make sure everyone behaved.

I am so proud of Colonel Sanders. He has fallen in love with his chicks! He stays very near them and tries to find interesting things for them to eat. Even when he can't find anything, he still clucks to them and calls them. He likes to have them close to his face, just like their mother does. They make such a cute family, the four of them.

Eowyn made it quite clear that she wants them all in the chicken pen with the rest of the flock, so we'll just let her do that. It makes things easier on us anyway. Everybody can eat chick starter for awhile, it won't hurt the big ones.


Update: As Mrs. Mac noted in comments, this post really calls for a photo. I wasn't having much luck getting everybody in frame. The babies kept hiding from me and the camera, or the Colonel would walk over close to me to make sure I didn't do anything dangerous. This is the best I could do. There is a baby in the picture, if you look very, very carefully. That's a watermelon rind they are snacking on. The Colonel is calling them and urging them to eat some.