Chicken Talk IV: No Spring Chicken

Here's another question of chicken talk: what does it mean to be "no spring chicken?" Well, chicks hatched in the spring are healthier and more vigorous than those hatched in the summer or early fall. Spring hatchlings have months to feast on the ample forage, and to feather out and grow healthy and strong before the weather turns cold.

Our last batch of chicks are no spring chickens: they hatched the second week in September. Six weeks later, at the end of October, they are still kind of little dudes. Their wings and breasts and backs are fully feathered, and they even have teeny tailios, but they are still sporting their baby-chicken neckfuzz.




Their mama is still taking good care of them, snuggling them in a nest at night instead of roosting on a perch. Soon she will wash her hands (wings) of motherhood though, and start roosting on her own. With November breathing down their fuzzy little necks, I hope these little guys and their teeny feathers are big enough to take it.