Moving Day!

The day has arrived for the little chicks to move outside. We have closed off part of the hen coop for them so they will have their own area. They will be safe from predators and also from the big hens. They have two shelters with lights for warmth and when they huddle together they will make some body heat. I had to catch them one by one and they were not too happy about being carried outside. Of course I could say they were "chicken". Once they got into their new enclosure, they began to explore and quickly found their food and water. I had put down some straw so they were scratching around in it looking for something to peck at. Tomorrow I am going to put some grass in for them to eat. They will like it, I am sure. I have included pictures of the big chickens, the new chick area, and the chicks in their new home. We won't let them out in the yard until they are bigger. Right now they could go right through the fence. That would be a tragedy in the making. More updates to follow as new things progress. Happy Scratching!

Moving Out!

This is the week when out little birdies will be heading outside. We have started getting their new home ready. It will be a space inside our chicken coop that is separate from the mature chickens. They will have their own separate feeder and water. If we put them directly in the coop with the big chickens, the big ones will pick at the little ones. If a chicken sees something different they will peck at it. This would be deadly for the younger birds. I will post a picture of them in their new surroundings as soon as we move them. Stay tuned.

Flying chicks!

I was out in the sunroom where the chicks are and I heard a racket. I looked over to where the chicks are and one had flown up to the top ring of the kiddie pool. Oh my, it is time to put the net over the pool. Otherwise we will have chicks all over the house. Chicks in the kitchen, chicks in the bathtub, chicks in the living room. Totally unacceptable! So, on goes the net. Now I have seen a couple of the eyeing the net, I wonder if they are planning their next move. Hmmmm. Tune in for the next adventure!

There has been an escape!

Hubby went to run and errand and forgot to close the gate to the yard. Oops. I discovered it when I took the little dogs out to go potty. After counting, I noticed some of our big chickens were missing. I went out and saw two escapees by the side of the fence. I chased them down and got them to come back into the yard. Hubby got back and we walked all around the yard to see if we had any more birds hiding in the trees or grass surrounding our place. We didn't see any, but went back inside to count again. Whew, we found all 16 of our big chickens. Just goes to show that you have to secure your yard.

Also, here is a new picture of the chicks inside.

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Surviving without Electricity

Yesterday we had a power outage. A strong storm had already passed by but the electric company said a substation lost power. They estimated that we would have power in about 2 hours. The chicks acted a little frantic because they had never been in total darkness. We have a generator and we got it hooked up to run the light for the chicks. As soon as we had hooked it up, they all settled down. Of course since we already had the generator running we also hooked up the TV. That was for us, not the chicks. Sure enough, about 2 hours later our power was back on.

In the photo you can see the blue feet on the Americauna chick. Notice in the background a Rhode Island Red's feet that are the usual orange-yellow color. You learn something new everyday! We think the coloring of the Americaunas is similar to quail.

Daily activities for the Chicks

All is well in the chicken pool. They are 3 weeks old now and have more than half their feathers. We cleaned out the old litter in the pool because they were starting to have an unpleasant fragrance. They were not happy with me when I got in the pool and started removing the old shavings, but they were very excited to have clean shavings to mess around in. I have included some pictures of them eating and drinking. They are really fun to watch.