8 Weeks - We have a Rooster!

At 8 weeks old Bella has grown into a nice pullet who likes to fly up to me and hang out.

Sophie is a cuddler, she continues to be a lot bigger than the rest of the chicks.

Lucie is a guzzler, she just loves to guzzle cold running water, anytime the drip system comes on she hangs out at one of the emitters and just sucks in the cold water, I think she drinks so much that she ends up chucking it up when she is full, but yet she continues to suck it in. Maybe it feels good to just let it run into her mouth, none of the other chicks are drinking like she does.

Goldie is officially a rooster now, as he started crowing this last Thursday. I had just decided to snooze a few more minutes when I heard this awful noise "ooooeeeeuuuuuhhhh" that left me wide awake and scrambling to get to my chicks. I thought for sure something terrible had happened, but before I could open the door I heard that noise again. This time I am thinking that I have heard that young cockerels start out with some pretty strange noises. I opened the door slightly and there he was, standing on the perch all "cocky", crowing in unison with the various roosters in our neighborhood. Love my chickies. They are so special.

7 Weeks and growing

My Chicks are 7 weeks old now, and just last night, for the very first time, they all marched into their chicken house at 8 pm when it started to get dark. I still put the crate and some light in there, but it's a start. Previously they would not go in there, but all huddle up somewhere near the fence. I still bring them in at night as it gets too cold, last night was the first time that the temperature didn't drop below 50, so if that trend holds up they will finally be able to live outside.

Mira

Tobi

Pearl, noticing that the other chicks have run the other way

Tippi resting in a damp spot, she will actually lay in a puddle and kick out her legs from under her.

Bella

Goldie the cockerel, he is growing some wattles now too, they are already flapping around a little, I wonder when he will start crowing

Tippi doing a leg and wing stretch, all the chicks have done that from the day they came here, but this is the first time I got a good shot of it.

Bianca

6 Weeks old

My chicks are 6 weeks old today, so over the weekend I took pictures so I could post at least one picture of each of my little chicks. The first one is Miss Lucie, she is an Ameraucana and she is very sweet, loves to sit on my arm.

this is Sophie, or Big Chick, she is beautiful with this very dramatic color pattern. And the feathers on her cheeks are really coming in now.

Tobi, a Barred Leghorn, she loves to wade through the puddles. I noticed all of the chicks love it when I turn on the water, I am guessing the ground grains I am feeding them are floating to the surface and are easier to find, they don't have to scratch around for each little piece of grain.

Tippi, the other Barred Leghorn tends to stretch out on her side, kicking out her legs, here she is resting in a wet spot under the tree, she sure knows how to stay cool.

Bella, my Golden Campine girl, another one that is very sweet and likes to be held.

Goldie, my Golden Campine rooster, he is a little standoffish, but after watching everybody else coming to me and being carried around he has also started to come and check me out.

Bianca, a Delaware, she has a gorgeous color pattern, very curious, but not very social at this point.

Pearl, my other Delaware, she has a very different color pattern from Bianca, but she is also now getting some grey coming in over her beak and the front of her head. Very interesting. She is very mischievious, always flies on my back and shoulders, then pulls on my hair and checks out my ears, she definetely needs to learn some manners.

Buffy, one of the Buff Orpingtons, she is getting more social, she has a nice disposition.

And this is little Mira, she is also a Buff Orpington, she continues to be the littlest one of the bunch, but she is getting quite feisty. She used to stand back when everybody dove into new food, now she waits a few seconds until everybody is busy munching and then she jumps into the middle of it to get her share. She seems to know she is smaller, so she uses a different strategy. I gave them some crickets today, and while everybody is frantically trying get at the bugs, Mira stands there and just observes. Then when some crickets fall out of the container she is ready to grab one before anybody even knows it, she runs off with it, and since nobody even noticed she got one, she gets to eat hers in piece. Smart little thing she is, always comes up and looks at me quizzically, she usually doesn't jump on my hand, but lets me pick her up and just snuggles when I hold her. She is my special little girl.

5 Weeks old

A sleepy Bianca (Delaware)

Look at Bianca's markings.

Pearl is my other Delaware, at this point, her markings are very different than Bianca's. Pearl has several areas of black markings, but none of the fine markings like Bianca has.Bella, a Golden Campine, she is the same breed as my little rooster Goldie. Whenever I go into their pen, she finds a way to fly on my back, such a little mischief she is, she is getting used to getting petted.

Buffy, one of my Buff Orpingtons
Mira, the other Buff Orpington. She is still a lot smaller than the other chicks, she seems to realize she is smaller, when they all go after some lettuce she usually gets pushed aside at first, Sophie is about 3 times her size. So when I hand feed treats I make sure Mira gets her share. Otherwise it isn't a problem, as I always have more than one feeder and waterer around, so she won't go hungry or thirsty.

Lucy, an Ameraucana, and Goldie the rooster, munching on some grains. Lucy is a real chow hound, when she gets to a feeder, she just inhales the food, today I caught her laying at the feeder and gobbling up the food. She is very sweet and will cuddle a little if she sits on my arm and I stroke her feathers. I never knew that feathers could have such a soft feel to them.

Tobi, one of the Barred Leghorns. They are both rather small compared to some of the other chicks. Tobi really likes to come over and hop on my hand. Doesn't like petting, but always wants to come up and sit on me.

Pearl again from the other side. Both she and Bianca are very curious birds.

Sophie, her head is getting some grey feathering now, and she is growing ear tufts, she is mostly cream white right now, with some of those black and cream feathers on the neck, wings and tail. Very interesting coloring. She is a little clumsy, she is so much bigger than any of the other chicks and I am seeing a little hint of a comb growing now.

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