Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chickens

This past Thursday the university I teach at was lucky enough to have Neil deGrasse Tyson as our main guest speaker for the semester!! Now you might be thinking that since I am an astronomy professor I had something to do with this and got to meet him, but you would be wrong. It had nothing to do with me, my department, or any academic department for that matter. I was lucky to just get tickets! They sold out in under and hour!

Luckily, we scored some autographs! We also hung around outside after the lecture and as he was being escorted to a car by an entourage of police officers, we got to say hi to him.


We were up in the nosebleed seats, but you can totally see him! He did the whole talk without shoes on... Just socks! I love it!


This was possibly my favorite slide of the whole lecture: Pluto (It's still not a planet). Oh my gosh, he was so hilarious!


Now it is time to talk about the not-so-little chicks that are now SEVEN weeks old! Provided none are roosters, these are the three we plan on keeping out of the fifteen.

First off, a ridiculously adorable Easter Egger with poofy cheek feathers. Since we got them at 3 days old, this one has been the most accepting of human interaction and a life of domestication.


Secondly, one of the three nearly-identical Easter Eggers with polydactyly (no idea where that came from, since it is usually a Silky trait). This one seems to be very clever and so friendly! Whenever I mess with them, this is one of the first to come play with me. Check out those feather colors! Gorgeous!


Then we have this striking Olive Egger that ended up being the darkest of the fifteen. I'm not sure what it is crossed with, but it has feathered legs and feet; we have been calling it the Hobbit chicken. This is going to be a gorgeous bird!