baby chicks

photo #1. day old chicks
photo #2+ same chicks at 11 days

 

 

 

So 10 days ago I was presented with 4 baby chickens. Two are Barred Rock but the doner couldn't remember what the other two are. They are supposed to all be hens. (Please, God, make them all be hens!)Three are the same size but one of the Barred Rocks is huge. She (we are determined to make it a she) was bigger when I got them so I'm hoping she hatched a day or two early and somehow got boxed in with the younger ones. She figured out how to fly up to the new perch today, just hours after being put into this bigger place of confinement. The kids who presented me with this little flock named her "Beans" but I think she is going to be "Bertha" as in BIG. The cat, Dawson, ignores them but the dog, Phoebe, is totally and utterly fascinated by them. Phoebe pretty much ignores the grown hen, Verna, and the Bantam rooster who reside outside, so I think she will not pester these gals once they are free range. She just wants to play with everything. She still wants to play with the deer but she is very good about just standing still and wagging her tail. (She felt the strike of the doe's hooves once and that was enough of a lesson for her.)Anyhow, I had NO idea just how messy chicks would be! No, its not the tiny poopies, its the food they manage to scratch out of the special chick feeder and scatter all over. Maybe they will be too big SOON to get their tiny feet into the feeder ports and that nonsense will stop? Don't know what the next inside home will be but surely they won't all fit in this current cage for 7 more weeks!