Chicks Eat Strawberry!

So...nothing much going on. The chickies are little mini chickens. We re-established their names. Ping and Pong, Mrs. Poppers, Bashful, and Pimpam, and Mocha, Pogo, Ginny, and Duffy! I was too lazy to go down and dump some strawberry stems, so I gave it to the chicks through the porch. They really wanted to eat it! There's really nothing going on, well, they really are flying up to roost on the big roosts a lot. But they are going to grow up soon so we need to say good-bye! Bye-bye!

Letting the Chicks Free!!!! (Hopefully)

Well, we haven't quite let them out yet. It's still in the 40's at night. But they are hoppity-doppity feathery and really eager to be out! They dump their food more than once a week, which is annoying. They are not very good at cleaning it out once we take the feeder out. Their box is tiny now-and at one point it seemed huge! Impossible! We moved them to the basement Thursday. The buffs, Ping & Pong, are great at just sitting on your thumb. Sometimes we find that they have squeezed out through the lattice. It's getting harder, and sometimes they get lost outside. When we take them outside in the box, they sure are getting heavy! Hopefully we will get more pictures-and send them out for good this weekend!
P.S. This was Ronit

The Roost

Well, I forgot to say, but I took up a little Buff up onto the perch in the coop, and it fell right off! Good thing it's still fluff! I took a RI next and it just stepped on. Then another, and a buff again I held my hands near it just in case and after a minute or so, it started slipping. That was really cute. Also they are just too stupid to go in and out of the house! I put them all in at 3:00 (they had been in the run) and I don't think they ever went out. Well, poor chickens. Hopefully ... Well, I don't know, they really are just pretty perfect! Actually, they have some icky skin showing. Eww.  Also they got a bit traumatized by some little girls. Well, goodnight Chickies!

Chicks are Really Happy!

We've been taking the chicks out nearly every day. Every time they get outside they jump up and down, about 1 foot in the air, like eagles. They are so excited! They found a worm twice. It took them almost 5 minutes to chase each other around and eat it. We put the two Buff Orpingtons, Ping and Pong, in the Bluebells. Adorable! When we put them in the leaves they fall down in holes. Miriam and I built a mini teepee-it is still up-and put Ping&Pong in. They pushed down a stick to get out, and raced over to the others. They were out in the yard for 3 hours on Wednesday and in the run and coop (not yard) for a long time Saturday. They are only about a month old, and the Polish ones are getting afro feathers. Their feathers make them hard to tell apart the old way, but they all have names. The RI Reds are Mocha, Ginny, Pogo, and Duffy. The Polish are Pimpam, Mrs. Poppers, and Bashful, and the little Buffs are Ping and Pong. One RI Red always walks over to me or wanders far away from the others. They are getting too big for their second box-Next week they are outside!

Ping&Pong in Bluebells!

New Chicks

We've started again.  Last Thursday, 4/4/2013, Ronit and I picked up 4 Rhode Island Reds, and 3 Polish chicks from Sweet Meadow Farm.  They were about 5 days old.  As if that were not enough, today, 4/11/2013, Dena and Ronit picked up two Buff Orpingtons.  They are all happily chirping in a big cardboard box in the dining room.

 Ronit and Miriam have been taking them out for field days when the weather is nice enough.  The only problem is that they are so small they tend to get lost in the brush.

Both Miriam and Ronit love holding the little chicks.

Transitions

The day after we installed the new nesting boxes we found eggs in them. Our chickens have adjusted! To get ready for the chicks hatching we also built a new perch for the chickens and finished building our new outdoor run. That night we didn't let the chickens into their house, so they are now sleeping outside. We are hoping the chicks will hatch in a few hours!

Getting ready for chicks

Work continues on the chick coop and run. Yesterday, Ronit, Miriam and I installed a huge door to the outside run that will allow us access to the area on rare occasions, and in particular, a way to dump leaves into the run in the fall. We now just have two 2'x2' squares in the roof to cover with chick wire -- and we'll be done with the run.

Angel, our broody hen, spent what seemed like a huge amount of time yesterday standing on the ladder in the outdoor run. She seemed to be somewhat agitated, and we all started getting nervous that the eggs were getting cold. Finally, after approximately 30 minutes she returned to the eggs. We are still nervous, but hoping for the best. While she was out of the nest box Miriam found an unfertilized egg - though we threw it out because we do not know how long she had been sitting on it. Meanwhile, Pecky Becky, seems to be broody too. Starting on Saturday afternoon she too is spending all her time in a nest box. That means both our two nest boxes are occupied by setting hens. It leaves the other two hens with no place to lay their eggs, and it means that we are back to buying eggs at Star Market.

Today, Miriam and turned an unused kitchen drawer into three new nesting boxes, and mounted them on the garage wall, under the deck. This should give our two non-broody chicks a place to lay eggs -- and it will also serve the big hens when we separate them from the chicks we are expecting on Thursday.