11 weeks - 2 crowing Roosters

The Boys, look at the size difference, Sophie's feet are green, Goldie's are slate-blue

The rooster named Sophie. He started crowing last Thursday, so there is no more guessing, Sophie is officially a boy. I thought about changing his name, but I think I will stick with Sophie, he seems to like his name. So far he is a sweet, but clumsy boy, he is huge and he often sits on my lap and lets me pet him.

Goldie

Lucy, she is a very sweet girl, always was.

Tippi is taking a nap in the "pool". She and Mira are the only ones who will lay down in the water to cool off and take a nap.

Cute little Mira. She really likes to be close to me when I am in their coop - and, she always wants to sit next to Sophie, one of the roosters.

Mira and Pearl, don't they look like two girls chit-chatting while walking along?

Pearl (right) and Bianca (left) enjoying a cantalope

10 weeks old and still growing

Bella, my pretty girl on the left. What elegant chickens these Golden Campines are, gold and black, golden neck and slate-blue feet.

Sophie, who will be re-named Omar if she is a he.

What a face.

Goldie my little eleganat cockerel.

Mira, she is a such a feisty little chick, but she is also very sweet and likes to hang out with me. She is still the smallest of the bunch.

Bella again.

Lucy to the right and Bianca on the left.

Bianca

Tobi is so far the only one of the chicks that comes to her name and will fly up on my arm when I call her.

Here Tippi grabbed the carton that came with the crickets, she ran with the piece of carton in her beak, but had to turn her head left and right to be able to see where she was going, it was really funny to watch her.

Bianca looking for more crickets. The box was the center of attention for two days, at which time the chicks destroyed it.

This picture shows how much bigger Sophie is compared to the rest of the chicks.

Pearl with a piece of tomato. One always knows when one of them has something special in their beak, they make quite some noise about it. It's really fascinating to listen to chickens and all the different sounds they make. It changes as they are getting more grown up too.

Tippi and Tobi, my Barred Leghorns.

9 weeks old

Chicks will be 9 weeks old on June 4th. They are getting pretty big now and Goldie the little rooster continues to practice crowing, I can't notice any improvement in his skills yet. Sophie's tail feathers are starting to grow down and the comb is growing as well, so looks like she is a boy as well and I need to find another name for him.
Bella taking a break on one of the branches I put up for the chicks
Lucy standing on the rim of the sand box. Our sand got all wet and muddy when I left the mister on for a while and it watered the sand, it should look nice again as soon as it dries out.

Tippi standing in the water. She actually will lie down in it and go to sleep, smart chickie.

this picture shows part of the chicken yard with some of the items I have put in there, a branch for roosting, an old broom stick in the corner that they love to use as a perch, underneath I have put some wood shavings and some hay for them so scratch around in, they also like to take naps there. I added this shallow plastic pan that we had originally bought to go under the washer. For some reason I have 3 of them, so now one is in with the chicks, so they have some water to cool down. The little table I made myself and I have a waterbowl up there so the water won't get so dirty with all the dirt the chicks tend to kick up. the table also serves as a resting spot for the chicks, they love to pile up under it for a nap.

Tippi loves the water.

Bianca on the go.

Taking a nap under the little table. Note the difference in sizes, Sophie in the middle is huge compared to Mira on the left. Mira is a feisty little one. Today I brought out a plate with some treats and everybody piled around it to eat. Mira
wasn't big enough to push in, so she just jumped right into the middle of the plate to claim her share.

Chicks make great pillows.

Pearl posing on the rock.

Tippi kicking out her legs, and Tobi next to her

Goldie and Sophie.

Mira and Buffy checking out a piece of apple

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.