Spending more time outside

Today was a perfect day to give the chicks some more outside time. Yesterday morning I found several of them sitting on the sides of their box, they are getting pretty good in flying up to a 2 foot target and getting there gracefully. They are also getting increasingly "friendly", and when I go into their area and sit down everybody comes hopping up on my arms and shoulders to see if I have any goodies. So as soon as I can feed them a larger variety of treats I will do some training with them to get a little more control with this little flock. So my chicks have a little sandbox, the sand in there is pretty fine grain, but it is sand, compared to the powdery dirt on our property. I am assuming the sandbox will come in quite handy when I get a few bugs for them, I can put the bugs in there which will make it harder for the bugs to escape.

This is a picture of the inside of their house, to the right are the two nest boxes, where they will hopefully go and lay their eggs in a few months.

I have been surprised today to see several of the chicks already hopping up on their perches, I have put a little bit of special grains on each of the three perches, so as they hop up they find some goodies. They were actually able to hop from the lower one to the higher ones without a problem. I think they are pretty smart.

Goldie is probably a cockerel, that means I better get ready for some rooster noises. He sure is a pretty little thing.

Lucie also has some nice golden feathers growing in around her neck, all her feathers are heavily marked.

Sophie is my other Ameraucana, the one that may also be a cockerel. It's amazing how different these two look, when they were babies, they looked very much alike, except for the stripe in the middle of their back, which was darker in Sophie. I still have no clue what she will look like when she (or he) will grow up. She is getting quite social with me, actually seems to start liking to be held and petted.

Mira my miracle chick, having a good time, actually we had a very funny situation yesterday. She got pooped on her leg by another bird, when she noticed all the poop covering her leg she let out a screech, she looked around like "oh my gosh, I have POOP on my foot!!!!" She carried on screeching and looking at the mess again and again. It was too funny how she acted. I ended up getting a hold of her and holding her leg under the faucet to rinse the poop off. While she objected to the procedure, she seemed quite relieved afterwards to be clean again.

This is Bianca, one of my Delaware chicks, I am really happy with all the different chicks I got, they are all so pretty.

And here we have a little standoff between Tippi on the right and Pearl on the left.

Sophie looking for goodies above

And Buffy testing her wings.

First Outing,

today I took my chicks outside to their future home, I took them to their area in a crate and put the crate inside their henhouse. When I opened the door they all stood there and looked for a while.

Tobi was the first one out, after a few times running back inside, I grabbed a little bit of grass and threw it where they could see it, that got them all going, from there they had a great time.

Still not quite sure what to make of all that freedom

Lucy on the move

Bugs watch out!

I found a cricket when I cleaned up the chicken area today, so I threw it into the sandbox so it couldn't escape, I was curious what the chicks would do when they discovered it. It didn't take long and Tobi hopped into the sand box, when she saw the cricket there was no hesitation, she immediately grabbed it and then slammed the poor insect left and right to the ground, then she ran to the other side of the enclosure and put the bug, that appeared dead, on the ground, picked it up again to slam it some more, I ran to get the camera to take a picture of this historic moment. I got back just in time to take one picture with the bug in her beak, and a few seconds later she swallowed it. Wow, these chicks are not even 4 weeks old and they can already kill and eat a bug. Truly amazing.

More pics of the fast growing chicks

Can't keep up with taking pictures of my little chicks. It's 3 weeks today since I got them. It is amazing to see their feathers grow in with all the different patterns. When I tried to decide on what breeds to get I got quite frustrated at the lack of good pictures of the different breeds. So I am quite curious about what my chicks will look like as adults. First picture shows Sophie, she is huge, has a little bit of an eagle look to her, and I am afraid that she is HE.

Look at the feathers of this Buff Orpington.

I am trying to apply dog wisdom to chicks. One thing to keep in mind is that those cute little chicks will grow into some rather good size birds, so behaviors that won't be acceptable from the adult chicken needs to be discouraged. One of them, Bella, just waits for an opportunity when I kneel down or sit down and she flies on my back or shoulder, I guess the shoulder would be okay, but once today she actually flew on my head. Weeeellll, I reached up and got the little uppety chickie off my head. Bella is a Golden Campine, and for the longest time I was wondering what's "Golden" about them, but now the golden pattern is emerging.

Goldie, the other Golden Campine, her comb is growing.

My little Lucy should be quite beautiful when she grows up, right now she has these beautiful orange/golden feathers growing in around her neck. She is a very sweet girl. It's actually interesting how they each have such different personalities.

The Barred Leghorn Tobi is the most curious about me, and always tries to get to me. On this picture I was kneeling on the floor and she sat on the back of my leg, she looks at my behind and lucky for her I noticed her, otherwise I would have squashed her if I had sat down.

Look at the size of Sophie, she has huge green legs, if she is a she, I hope she lays nice big green eggs one day

My foot was a favorite resting place

My miracle chick

on Monday morning I noticed that one of my Buff Orpington chicks wasn't eating and just sat around all puffed up. I was sure I was going to lose her. At first I didn't think there was anything I could do, but then I remembered all the things I had learned about raising newborn puppies. So I got out my Nutridrops and tried to get some of that into her. Having never tried this before, I found it very difficult to open the beak and get something into her mouth. Finally I got one large drop into her mouth and she swallowed it. It seemed to perk her up a little, so I tried to figure out what I could mix together as a "formula", I decided on water, molasses, Nutridrops and a little bit of crushed garlic. I figured out how to hold the little dropper on her beak so it would get a bit of the formula inside and she would start swallowing. This worked well enough so I would get about 6 to 8 drops into her every few hours. By evening she was no better but still hanging in there, so I changed the formula to raw egg yolk, molasses and water (this was not based on any instructions, just what I came up with). After two feedings of this mixture she was still the same, I thought she was getting weaker. Then I saw her go potty, a rather large BM came out, but she didn't seem to be able to squeeze it all out, and it hung from her behind. I got out some tissue to clean her up and when I tried to clean her I noticed that something stringy was still inside. I gently pulled it out, she squeaked a little bit. She then sat there for a short while and I thought that was it, when all of a sudden she came to life, ran over to the waterer and took a long drink, then marched over to the feeder and started pecking away. The above pictures show her today, busily moving about and eating away. I had noticed that she had lagged behind with her growth over the last couple weeks, so it is quite possible that whatever was stuck up there has been causing a problem for more than just one day. I hope she makes it. I think I will change her name to Mira, as she is truly a miracle.

Things for chicks to do

Since somebody was nice and left me a comment on my last post and asked for suggestions for things for chicks to do, I thought I make a separate post about it. The first picture shows the little sand box I put into their area, it's just a good sized clear plastic box and I put about 2 inches of sand in it, then I got that branch that it visible on that picture, so they have a gnarly branch to climb around on, in the corner next to the sandbox as well as in some other areas I throw a few handfulls of hay, they go crazy about it, scratching in it, grabbing pieces and slinging them on the ground, running around with it and chasing each other.

I am also providing a few perches for them to sit on, actually just made a new one today that is made from a 3 x 2 and is about 3 feet long. This gives them choices for sleeping places, prepares them for sleeping on a perch in the henhouse that is waiting for them and when they are not sleeping it gives them a place to fly up to or use as a launch pad for their flight exercises. The old broomstick is quite a popular perch, they sit there looking outside,

I do believe it is important for chicks to have an enriched environment, they are smart and energetic little creatures and they thrive on having something that keeps them busy. I also give them grass, just pull out a nice size grass plant including the roots and some dirt, it provides great entertainment (and makes a mess).

I sit inside their area sometimes on the floor after I just cleaned up, and hold some lettuce leaves out for them, the go at it as if they haven't eaten for days. I use the lettuce to get them to jump on my hands or arms, I call their names and hold the lettuce in front of them in the hope they will learn their names. Sometimes I scatter a grain mix I made up on the ground for them, flax meal, wheat germ, Scottish oatmeal and some fine buckwheat. They get crumbled boiled egg yolk and finely chopped alfalfa sprouts. I am hoping to move them outside, at least for the days when it is warm, by midweek next week. I am learning as I go, I think I will look for a few nice branches to put into their chicken yard so they can sit off the ground in the sun. Once they can eat adult food I will get some mealworms for them to "hunt" and who knows what else I can come up with to keep my little flock entertained.

Just some cute pictures

Just wanting to share a few cute pictures of my little flock:

Tippi, a Barred Leghorn

Goldie, a Golden Campine

Bella, a Golden Campine

My cute little Lucy, an Ameraucana The monster chick Sophie, she is so much bigger than the others, when she jumps off the perch it makes a "thump" because she is so heavy. She doesn't like it when the others are running like mad, she stops them and stands tall on her legs "dare running into me!". Maybe she is a HE?

Biance, a Delaware, showing off her pretty feathers

and Bianca, sitting on my hand

Pearl, a Delaware, looking all fluffy

Buffy, a Buff Orpington

Almost 3 weeks old,

in 2 days my little chicks will be 3 weeks old and today I made them a larger indoor area with an x-pen (thanks Cheri). I took their box outside and threw out all the old shavings and put fresh in there. now they have the box with the heatlamp and a snuggle safe disc for warmth, and and an approximately 6 x 8 "yard" to run around, the sandbox, a perch that is one foot up, a board on 2 x 4s and their branch. In between I give them some fresh hay, or some fresh grass or lettuce to entertain themselves with. The first picture shows the first two chicks emerging at the door when I opened it for them to come out into their new pen. On the second picture they all came out to investigate. This x-pen enclosure is a lot higher than the other one was, so they won't be able to get out anytime soon.

They have gotten quite used to me now and several of them are very eager to fly up on my hand or arm, even when it's a foot of the ground, especially Tobi keeps finding ways to get up on my hand or my arm. The 3rd picture shows them at the feeder, notice Sophie on the left, she is the biggest chick, huge feet. Tobi on the right has a much different body shape and is medium size, note the smaller feet.

Their little combs are growing now too. Goldie's is the most visible at the moment, and Bella who is the same breed of chicken as Goldie, a Golden Campine, is also just starting to show a hint of a comb.

Chickens are really entertaining birds, I could watch them all day. They are quite flighty, even when I have been exposing them to all kinds of novel things as well as the daily routines, they still don't like to be picked up, though some seem to get better about it. If one of them panics over something EVERYBODY is in a panic.

Tippi is checking me out here. She has been the slowest in participating in eating lettuce, taking food from me and trying new foods, she just started eating lettuce yesterday, when everybody else has been eating lettuce for about a week now. For a while I thought something was wrong with her and I thought maybe she won't make it, but it seems like she is just slower to grow.

Pearl, the little Delaware is also one that now likes to fly up on my arm when she thinks I have food for her.

Buffy, a Buff Orpington, and Tippi a Barred Leghorn.

The last one is Lucy, one of my Ameraucanas. She is getting very curious and flies up on my arm any chance she gets.