sunny the roo*delilah the baby

one of our araucanas turned out to be a big, handsome rooster. it became pretty evident when he was about 8 weeks old. my husband was positive that Sunny was a he, but i remained in denial. 

 this is what finally convinced me. about 15 seconds in. 

i had already talked to a friend about the possibility of a roo in our flock and she said she would love to welcome him to her one acre urban homestead.

this was sunny's last day in the rainbow coop. it was silly how attached to this guy we had all become. 

here he is with his girls.

 we dropped him off at the huberty homestead where he can happily free range and has a whole lot of hens to watch over. we brought home this little araucana in trade. we call her delilah. she is half the size of our big girls. it is quite difficult to bring a new hen into an established group of chickens. it is even harder to bring in a tiny, lone girl.

 we kept her in the house at night. she slept in the brooder box in my sewing room. esmé would wrap her in cloth diapers and let sleep in her arms on the couch. certainly not the typical chicken lifestyle. in the morning i would take her out to the coop and watch closely while she tried to interact with the big girls. they pecked at her and i let them. i just made sure there were no brutal attacks, and there never were. in fact only one hen, a black sex link named jojo, seemed bothered by her presence. i put a wire cage inside their enclosure and that is where delilah stayed with her own food and water, for nearly a week. it seemed like a safe way for them all to get acquainted with each other.  the night before last i left her in the coop to sleep all night. after dark i went out to check and the five big girls were all snuggled up on one roost and little delilah was all by herself on the empty roost. but she was safely in the coop so i let her be. last night i went out after dark and could not find her. i took a flashlight out and looked and looked and then there she was, all cute and cozy on the big girl roost, right in the middle. it took one week and it seems that they have accepted her presence. 

she is acting like a chicken once again and all is well in the happy, hippie rainbow coop! next order of business, eggs. glorious, fresh eggs...!