Duck, Duck, Chicks

We went shopping yesterday. Not food or supply shopping but shopping for additions to the family.  Our cats and dogs find/found us, the barn swallows just set up their nest outside the back door, the hummingbirds drink their fair share of joy juice, and the fish keep to themselves. We needed something more. Something's been missing.

See, we used to have chickens, in addition to the iguanas, turkey, Barbados sheep, and the tortoise. The mama hens used to lay their eggs on the shoe rack. And every day, I would pick them up on my way in from work. We called them shoe rack eggs and they were yummy.

But one thing led to another and our menagerie shrunk to be just dogs and cats. The barn swallows still nest outside the back door but we've improved our living conditions so their babies no longer learn how to fly in our living room. The hummingbirds argue over the feeder, the dogs play and bark at the wind, the cats get held captive by the warm cushions in the chairs on the back porch, but there is no cock-a-doodle-doo or the henny penny clucking noises of mama hens anymore. But yesterday that all began to change.

We went to Moore's Feed Store. They are on the corner of South Flores and Malone - just South of downtown San Antonio. What a great store! Very friendly and knowledgeable staff. We got there just before they were scheduled to close. You would not have known it. They answered our questions, showed us the other critters that were the barn across the parking lot, helped us get feed, and while we were at it, we bought seed for the birds that have made our yard home. I would highly recommend them. They had a great selection and we left with more than we planned on. And we got serenaded by the guy helping us. He sang Burl Ives - Grey Goose. I didn't remember the song. He thinks my dad might. I laughed because I'm totally like that and I would break out into song if provided the chance.

We came home with two ducks - those poofs on their head will stay - aren't they cute?  The reddish brown and cream colored chick are both polish chickens. They get very ornate feathers. At least that's what the polish chickens we used to have had.

These two - boy and girl - are Golden Phoenix's. The boy gets a beautiful long tail. They look nothing like they will when they grow up.

While Roy was working on getting their cage ready, Sy and Frito were checking them out. I hope that Frito is only interested in them because he wants to be make sure they don't knock him out of his post as the spoiled rotten canine. He was licking his chops so that makes us a little nervous.

Frito and Dippit have never been around birds. They do not like the Emu next door but they leave him alone for the most part. So hopefully they are just curious about these guys and once they are old enough to roam the yard, the dogs will not pay them any mind. And since Roadblock was good with our other birds, we are hoping he keeps the other boys in line.

They will be in a cage in the garage for a few weeks. Here they are checking it out. Sy broke up a piece of bread and put it in there for them that's the brown stuff on the paper.

Sy thinks they are wonderful and the novelty of them has not yet worn off. We are trying to explain to him that they will be full grown in a few weeks and won't be cute babies for long. We aren't sure he gets it yet.

Last night Roy made chicken for dinner. Sy ate almost a whole breast by himself. During the meal, Roy told him not to the let the peeps know what he had because they didn't know that people eat chickens and he said they would be scared. After dinner, Sy was begging to go out and see them so Roy went with him. As Roy walked out to the garage, he yelled "Sy ate chicken for dinner." I heard Sy say, "Dad, be quiet!".

This morning, it's the first thing Sy wanted to do - go count the peeps. I told him I already had done it. He asked me how many I counted. I told him 7. He stopped and looked at me. I started laughing. Only 6, just like when you went to bed last night.

They have grown quite a bit in 24 hours. I will take more photos next Saturday to see how much they have changed in 1 week's time. And my prayer this week will be, "Please don't let the dogs eat them. Amen."