Chicks - Grow With Me - The 6th Month

They are 6 months old! Time to celebrate with a crow on a frosty morning!

This brings my posts up to date with the boys, no more zooming back in time.

The boys regularly start crowing between 5:30-6:00am. They continue crowing until I let them out of their cage. I tend to give them a bit of a cuddle on a cold morning before I release Penguin. He makes a beeline to the ladies and waits for me to open the door. There is usually a mad scramble and squawking as he makes his move. None of the Araucanas were laying, so they are not inclined to squat for him. 

Buffy is as cute as ever. This little one LOVES to be picked up and held and how could you resist this look?

Even cuter when he's puffed up a bit from the cold

What I like is that it looks like he is wearing fluffy pants.

Even with all those feathers, this little one shivers with the cold. He's quite happy to be picked up and carried around. He likes to be up high, so he will jump up onto my shoulder (yes he can fly up to head height) to take a look at a the world from his lofty position.

Buffy is still valiantly trying to woo the ladies. Wing dances, gifts of food, showing them good places to nest were all in vain. None of the ladies would squat for him. Effie and Chicky would just chase him away, leaving him with just the Araucanas and Flopsy. Surprisingly, Buffy is attracted to Flopsy, the smallest chicken with one of our biggest. Flopsy is strangely terrified of Buffy, there is nothing funnier than Buffy hanging on to Flopsy's tail, being dragged around whilst Flopsy runs clucking in terror.

The Araucanas do seem to realise that the roosters are sources of food. Whenever they make their "cluck cluck" (there is great food here!) noise, Dee Dee and Dum Dum turn up. Dee Dee is quicker off the mark, so she generally gets most of the food. For about 2 weeks, Dee Dee would actually squat for Penguin. 

Caught in the act behind the bushes!

 Pippy just stays away from Penguin, Dum Dum though, tends to get caught when she wanders into his path

 

Wing dancing for Dum Dum. She's not interested

Poor Dum Dum, both of the boys seem interested in her.

The great thing is that both of them get along very well. No fights between them, they sleep together, they eat together and they hang around together all day. I've often seen Buffy preening Penguin. I just hope that they keep getting along together.

Penguin is obviously the dominant rooster. He's not aggressive, but he's appointed himself as the leader of the Araucanas. Whenever Dum Dum squawks (which is quite often as she gets stuck in many places), Penguin will come rushing over to see what is wrong. He does look after his ladies. Both Penguin and Buffy are both very alert for strange things/noises and they both will sound the alarm whenever they think there is danger. Although their small size means that their alarm calls are quite high pitched and "girly" sounding!

 Both of them are starting to grow spur nubs. Nothing pointy at the moment. Will have to wait and see when they start to grow pointy. Buffy has grown his bushy bustle, his comb and wattles are much bitter and his feathery feet don't like the wet and muddy winter that we have had so far.

Buffy's bustle. Very soft and squishy :)

 Penguin has grown magnificent sickle feathers, his comb has also grown a bit. Actually, when looking at photo's of Australian Araucana rooster standards, his comb is actually too big. Plus he has some brassy colour in his hackle feathers. So he's not show perfect, but what a character!

So the chicks have grown up now. They are pretty much mature and I don't think they will grow that much bigger. Hopefully they will still like their nightly cuddles, being handled all the time and both will stay good friends. 

My babies have grown up so quickly. We're hoping to incubate some of Dee Dee's fertile eggs when Effie goes broody again, so we can start this saga all over again :)