If 6 chicks is good, 10 must be better...right!? That's what we were thinking this morning when we headed to the feed store to pick up 4 more little chicks. Two Black Australorps and two Buff Orpingtons. Aren't they the cutest little things?
We are not going to keep them all of course, our permit only allows us to have 6 chickens. But we decided that we would raise these 10 for a few months and once they are outside we will see which ones are the friendliest of the bunch. Then we will re-home the other 4, and keep the 6 that make the best backyard hens. So we will eventually have to say goodbye, but for now we are enjoying the heck out of these little guys!
Here they are meeting the rest of the flock. The newest chicks are only a couple days old, and seeing them together with the bigger chicks convinces me even more that the older ones are at least two weeks old:
As you can see in the picture above, the older birds were not quite sure what to make of the insolent little newcomers, and they huddled together as far out of reach as they could. They must have come to the conclusion the the babies weren't any threat to them, and soon they began mingling and checking each other out. I was really happy to see there was no pecking going on, everyone got along right away:
Although that Buff in the top right corner does seem to be giving a bit of the stink eye to that little Australorp:
Guess who else was super excited about the new arrivals? The kids, for one:
And Mr. Ruger was pretty pleased with his increasing harem as well:
At this point, he is more interested in picking chicken poop out of the shavings to eat, but I guess that's a lot better than him thinking they are noisy snacks. I take him out with me to the coop to sit and watch the chicks a couple times a day, practically shoveling treats down his mouth for good behavior. He is interested....but not overly so. I have high hopes that we can get this to work....
And don't worry. Those first chicks aren't lacking for attention because of the arrival of the newer (and dare I say, cuter) arrivals. The kids are still giving them plenty of love. I actually feel like we spend a good portion of our day in the garage now, either getting Ruger familiar with the chicks, or spending time holding and petting the chicks to get them familiar with us. Who knew chicks could be so much work!? Luckily, its fun work and nobody minds when its their turn to cuddle these little ones:
We are not going to keep them all of course, our permit only allows us to have 6 chickens. But we decided that we would raise these 10 for a few months and once they are outside we will see which ones are the friendliest of the bunch. Then we will re-home the other 4, and keep the 6 that make the best backyard hens. So we will eventually have to say goodbye, but for now we are enjoying the heck out of these little guys!
Here they are meeting the rest of the flock. The newest chicks are only a couple days old, and seeing them together with the bigger chicks convinces me even more that the older ones are at least two weeks old:
As you can see in the picture above, the older birds were not quite sure what to make of the insolent little newcomers, and they huddled together as far out of reach as they could. They must have come to the conclusion the the babies weren't any threat to them, and soon they began mingling and checking each other out. I was really happy to see there was no pecking going on, everyone got along right away:
Although that Buff in the top right corner does seem to be giving a bit of the stink eye to that little Australorp:
Guess who else was super excited about the new arrivals? The kids, for one:
And Mr. Ruger was pretty pleased with his increasing harem as well:
At this point, he is more interested in picking chicken poop out of the shavings to eat, but I guess that's a lot better than him thinking they are noisy snacks. I take him out with me to the coop to sit and watch the chicks a couple times a day, practically shoveling treats down his mouth for good behavior. He is interested....but not overly so. I have high hopes that we can get this to work....
And don't worry. Those first chicks aren't lacking for attention because of the arrival of the newer (and dare I say, cuter) arrivals. The kids are still giving them plenty of love. I actually feel like we spend a good portion of our day in the garage now, either getting Ruger familiar with the chicks, or spending time holding and petting the chicks to get them familiar with us. Who knew chicks could be so much work!? Luckily, its fun work and nobody minds when its their turn to cuddle these little ones:
