Funny Birds

Let's see. What have we here? Chicks, about six weeks old. This is not the age, nor stage, at which greeting cards use chicks for Easter cards. They are not in the phase where you'd say they look adorable, not as a first impression, anyway. No, this age is goofy, odd, awkward, ungainly, in-between. They are freaky feathered fowl. The last of their down flies off them like fluff from a dandelion. Their true feathers are coming in, and sticking out. They still peep like wee chicks, but they flap, flutter and fly with all the grace and coordination of Elaine Benes getting a dance started... they are funny!
Pippy and Pepper, Silver Laced Wyandottes. I might add, this is a doubtful stage and age, when one cannot be too sure of things... Are they chickens? Are they hens? Did we rescue genetically mutated starlings?

Sweet fancy Moses!

Pippy has more white feathers on her head. Write that down, for the quiz.

Just kidding. We still can't tell our Thompson from our Thomson.

And we still haven't settled on a name for this Ameracauna. I shouldn't name her Hazel, like I was considering, because that's our rat's name: Hazel Nutt. I think it's risky to name a hen when she's going through this phase... it inspires less than flattering suggestions! {Why am I thinking Phyllis Diller??}

The darker Ameracauna hasn't a name either. She may not be an Ameracauna. She may be a burrowing owlet, or an orphaned hawk. An escapee from the dinosaur cloning lab. We just don't know.

Fiona is the Buff Orpington. She's the tamest, the youngest, and the most likely to be an actual chicken.

And here's Pepper, photobombing. Funny birds.