Chicks at 3 Weeks

Time flies when you're having fun!  The chicks seem to grow so fast, too.  Now they're 3 weeks old as of Sunday, May 25, 2014, and going through the awkward stage of half down/half feather look. Vanilla's 'chirp' is also starting to sound less like the chick and just 'oddly older'.

Sage standing on the inverted glass inside the waterer.  Feeling tall and adventurous as always.

We haven't seen a lot of chest-bumping like we saw with the first flock 2 years ago.  We have seen a little bit of that go on between Vanilla and Mocha, but it seems that the pecking order has already been established among these girls.  Vanilla, being the biggest of the three, is the boss bird.  And Sage, being the smallest, seems perfectly OK at the bottom of the pecking order.  They don't peck at one another at all, even when a treat of fresh green is offered.  Sage is the most fearless and friendly, so she gets to the treat first, while the larger, but more timid girls are perfectly happy checking  to make sure everything is safe before jumping in.

Vanilla and Mocha.  Pretty feathers are coming in.

Not only more of their feathers are coming in and they look more like chickens than chicks, a start of their comb is visible.  Since they're still chicks, the beginning of their tiny combs look yellow like the beaks.

Here, you can see Sage's 'baby comb'.  Of the three, Vanilla and Mocha are Easter Eggers, so they will have what they call 'pea combs' - just a much smaller, 'crumbled' kind of comb, and their wattles (these flappy things under the chins of the chickens) will be hidden with their feathers.  Sage, on the other hand, will have visible comb and wattles.

The baby girls are healthy, active, and friendly.  Chickens are such joy!!  As I've said before, the eggs are just the bonus of keeping chickens as pets, I feel. ^_^  The little ones are quite good at "flying".  They can go straight up from the ground level to the top of the ramp by flying.  They sometimes do the same coming down.  Having fun with shortcuts... just because!

Now, off to the garden pics.  This season, I have minions of chamomile all around the herb box.  They were the volunteer plants that germinated from seeds dropped from last year's cluster that I grew from seeds.  I love the scent of this herb and I wouldn't mind if we end up with an even larger patch... :D

The clusters of Sweet Williams (Dianthus) by the goldfish pond are doing well, too.  We had more rain than usual this spring and everything in the backyard is really enjoying it (although we had a much later start of spring growing season due to harsh winter and late cold snaps well into May).

Our goldfish pond is small, but we have a waterlily, which seems to be spreading just fine.  After a ho-hum performance last year, it's coming back with vigor this spring.  We've already had 5 blooms and more are on the way.

Had a terribly late start on the peas.  I almost gave up on the idea of spring veggies altogether.  By the time it was finally starting to warm up, it was already April, and we still had multiple killing frosts after that.  These guys were planted in April, and just now starting to really take off.  But now the temperature is expected to reach 90 degrees for daily highs...  I'll probably get some shade cloth for these.

After not planting window boxes for 2 seasons, finally got some new boxes for my birthday at the end of April.  Got a little crazy shopping for flowers and the extra flowers found their way into pots in the backyard.  I have them inside the fenced-in area for now to keep them safe from the older chickens that free range.

In the front yard, on both sides of the walkway, we have bachelor's buttons that I don't remember planting.  Not only do I not remember planting the seeds, these guys have managed to get 3 1/2 to 4 feet in height.  I've never seen them grow quite so tall.  The bees love these flowers and there's a hum of them all day long in the front yard near these clumps.  Spring is such a beautiful time of the year~!!

The vegetables (3 tomatoes, 2 eggplants, 1 sweet bell pepper) have been planted this weekend.  I've decided to plant "German Queen" alone in the old garden area way back by herself since it's an heirloom and heirlooms have done rather poorly in the past in SFG boxes in my backyard.  The other hybrid tomatoes are in the SFG  boxes with different veggies.

Almost finished with the planting for the season, with the roses and delphinium finally in the bed in the front, annual bed has been planted, and the sunflower fence in the back has also been sown.  Now we have two large pots and a dedicated flower SFG to plant.  My husband is building another SFG box, which will also require protection from our free-ranging chickens (fence time!), so I still don't have all the details figured out yet.  It's a work-in-progress. :D