12 Days young,

when I checked on my chicks first thing this morning I happened to witness Tobi's first successful flight up to the crate. Looked at her standing there all proud of herself, pooped twice on top of the crate too, before she flew off again. I can't believe these chicks are only 12 days old. Already they are getting pretty big and everybody is practicing flying. Found Tippi, who is the other Barred Leghorn, on top of the feeder this afternoon. The mini-perch is quite popular, but I think they would probably already like a higher one, of course then they would probably use it as a launch pad to fly over the top of their enclosure.

This little Ameraucana has just the prettiest wings, and look at the tail feathers growing.

Today was really a big day, they ate their first lettuce, I offered it from my hand and they nipped off small pieces (from the lettuce) and some of them ate it, some dropped it. The two little Delaware chicks Bianca and Pearl are usually the first ones to investigate, every time I show up at least one of them comes running to see what's going on. As soon as one of them started pecking off pieces of the lettuce the rest joined in. I find it really interesting how these little birds flock together. They really copy behaviors, if one does something the rest wants to do it too, if one runs for the hills, they usually all do.So then the little crew took a sun bath and I noticed that some of them were rolling around and flapping their wings like chickens do when they take a dust bath. So I figured they are letting me know that it's time to provide them with a sandbox, so they could take a dust bath. I had recently scoped out a place in the desert that had some nice sand, so off we went to get a few shovels full of sand for the chicks. I mixed it with diatomacous earth, and then waited to see who would go in first. Everybody checked out the ramp going up, but as usual is was Bianca who came to investigate and when I held my hand into the box she came in to investigate. The sandbox was a favorite all afternoon, and little Sophie couldn't get enough of rolling around in the sand and flapping her wings to load the sand on her back. I am just amazed at all the things they already do, and they aren't even 2 weeks old yet. It also makes me sad to think about all the chickens that grow up in facilities that only care about producing eggs or meat, without concern for the environmental enrichment of these intelligent little birds.