Summer Chicks ~ 4 Week Update

 

In the beginning:

We ordered 25 female chicks. The Hatchery gave us 5 extra chicks. Two chicks expired due to travel stress, within the first two days. One chick was killed by a snake that snuck into the Brooder.

So, that left us with 27 chicks who are growing bigger every day.

Even with a Brooder as roomy as ours, it’s getting crowded with this many chicks. So, this week, it was time to separate some of the chicks into another temporary Brooder until it is time, in about 2 more weeks, to move them outside into the Chicken Coop with the adult hens.

I decided to gather up all the Silver-laced Cochins a couple days ago, and place them together inside a large rabbit cage, because our SL Cochin’s tend to be very flighty and more active than our other chicks, which gets the rest of the chick flock all riled up. They also aren’t as hand-tame as we’d like, so we want to spend more time handling them. And it will be easier to catch them in the smaller cage.

The Silver-laced Cochins are in the upstairs apartment.

It’s amazing how much calmer and quieter the main Brooder is now that the Silver-laced Cochins have been removed. And even the Silver-laced Cochins are quiet and calm, too.

And very curious and more open-minded about being touched.

But best of all, the remaining chicks within the main Brooder have a little more space to move around in.

The Blue Wyandottes are definitely more relaxed, like Jen’s favorite chick, Penguin.

The Blue Wyandottes are really becoming quite pretty.

And the Golden-laced Wyandottes’ lovely feather patterns are starting to show. I also like their curious, but calm personalities. They remind me of our 4 year old Silver-laced Wyandotte hen, who is more like a wise old grandmother than a chicken.

The little broken-toed chick, that we named Faith is doing really well, and while still smaller than the other chicks, she is almost feathered out in some beautiful colors and patterns.

  

Disco, the Silver-laced Cochin is even more fluffy-legged. She reminds me of a Transformer when she walks.

 

The Ameracauna chicks and the Speckled Sussex are fast becoming very tame and are quick to jump into our hands or onto the sides of the Brooder so that we can pick them up.

Speckled Sussex chick.

 

Ameracauna chick

 

Yesterday morning while I was refilling their feeder, one of the Speckled Sussex climbed up my arm and onto my shoulder and then finally fluttered up to my head. I asked Jen, The Chicken Girl to take a photo of me with a chick on my head and this was her first ever photo taken all on her own. Not too bad considering I was only half-awake because it was so early.

The Chicken Girl and the chicks have this fun game they play where the chicks jump up to the sides of the Brooder and wait at the “Bus Stop” for Jen to “drive” over and pick them up and take them for a ride in her “Bus”.

The chicks sit and wait patiently for “The Chicken Bus”.

 

 

And the chicks really seem to enjoy the views from the Chicken Tour Bus.

 

Sometimes she ends up with a full load of passengers.