New baby chicks!

I found some nice well-bred Ameraucana chicks! I called a gentleman, who had the same lovely bloodlines I had before and lost in the drought, whose name is listed in the Ameraucana breeders list. He and his brother breed wheaten, blue wheaten, splash, black, and blue Ameraucanas. They have French Marans also. I didn't know if I would have the heart to try again with such beautiful birds, but once I got the ball rolling with some phone calls and emails I was thrilled! We drove to Chickamauga GA, through Chattanooga, and the battlefield, and the town both Steve's and my parents got married in (because it was like the Gretna Green of the Southern US after WWII), and through some of the loveliest countryside in the nation to pick them up.

Here is the breed's website: http://www.ameraucana.org/

We drove home with eleven little chicks peeping in a box. One is definately a wheaten cockerel, one other may be. One is a blue wheaten and I think it's a pullet. All the rest are beautiful wheaten pullets. Since I have one shot at a nice roo, maybe two shots, I am hoping he will be a nice one with clear golden, red and black colors, full beard and muffs, a nice shape and size and a nice typey comb.

I have them set up in a raised pen on my front porch where I spend a lot of time anyways reading, drinking coffee, cleaning saddles, and potting plants in nice weather. So today I planted ivy-leaved geraniums, lobelia and euphorbia in hanging baskets while little chicks peeped and pecked and explored the porch near me.

I was so excited to have brought home some buddies for lonely Sparrow, my one hen. Maybe with the new chicks she will stop trying to get into the house! I had all the little chicks loose under the forsythia bush They were having a blast peeping, pecking, flitting and bumping breasts. They learned how to dust their wings and hop up onto low branches. It was, perhaps, the first time they had ever run loose like that. Sparrow noticed them and started walking towards them seemingly fascinated. She stopped under the forsythia and talked a sweet chicken song. The little chicks gathered a few feet away from her, equally interested but a little unsure. Then one little chick responded to Sparrows coos and clucks and bravely walked up to her. They touched beaks ... awww. Then Sparrows beak darted out like a snake, pecking the tiny baby and making her squawk in fright and pain, and she ran back behind her little buddies. That will be a lesson remembered, I am sure! Maybe someday soon Sparrow will accept them and run with them.