Chicks!

Last spring we ordered our first chicks. We got a total of 20 chicks which was a mix of Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks. Now, we are down to eight hens and four roosters from the original twenty. We decided that we wanted to try our hand at breeding them so we could replenish our flock. We bought a Little Giant Still Air incubator but unfortunately it does not come with an egg turner so we had to do that by hand. You can buy an egg turner to go with it so we may have to get that later.

Our first chick hatched a week ago and it has been fairly steady ever since. So far we have 19 chicks total but we have lost four so far. We aren't sure why as they did not exhibit any signs of illness but so far the other chicks seem to be doing fine.

We bred the Rocks first so this is a picture of the very first one starting to make its debut. It takes several hours to a day or so for them to hatch.

If you have never had the opportunity to see a chick hatch, I have to tell you it is one of the coolest things ever! Of course I think seeing any life come into the world is an amazing thing.

So here it is when it first comes out of the egg. Of course they are all wet and have to remain in the incubator for a few hours so they can dry and fluff out before you move them over to the incubator. It takes a little while for them to get their legs under them and they tend to flop around a good bit while they are trying to figure things out. It doesn't take them long though before they are running around all over the place.

And here is the little ball of fluff all dried out. The older chicks are starting to get their feathers now and are getting quite playful. They are attempting to fly and like to try and roost on top of the feeder and water dispenser. Overall I think our first attempt at incubating has been pretty successful...now we just have to wait on the geese!

Who needs TV?

I have said that animals are often more entertaining than TV. The chicks and the geese are proving to be a constant source of entertainment. The chicks are fun to watch as they go about their usual business and I find it amazing at how quickly they are getting their feathers. Being a city girl, this is all very fascinating and the kids are having a blast.

Plymouth Rock about one week old.

Rhode Island Red about one week.

 They have now been moved outside into the chicken tractor so they can have more room and get used to being outside. We have started construction on the coop and I plan on buying the fencing this week so we can get one paddock put up. If we can buy materials every payday, then we can have the entire system set up in just a couple of months. They have actually gotten a lot more feathers since I took these pictures so I will have to take new ones soon. They are almost three weeks old now and it is becoming more apparent which ones are the males.

The chicks in the chicken tractor.

 Right now it looks like we may have about four male Plymouth Rocks and 2-3 male Rhode Island Reds. It's still hard to tell but they are beginning to challenge each other. One interesting thing I've learned is that 5 goslings can out eat and drink 20 chicks. They are also noisier and smellier. Within the first week the geese were going through as much food in 24 hours as the chicks were in two days. That doesn't count the water! We have gone to letting the chicks out during the day so they can eat grass in addition to their feed and they now have use of the 1 gallon water container. They are going through at least half of that a day plus what we put in a large dish for them to splash around in.

We have also started taking them to the creek once or twice a day to let them take a dip and cool off. The temperatures have been pretty warm the last couple of days and they enjoy being able to get in the water to swim around. We will wait about introducing them to the pond until they are bigger. They actually have done very well about staying by the house when we are not outside with them. As long as they have shade and water, they will stay around the house munching on grass. Of course the funny part is how they will follow us around. We have taken to calling them our fuzzy children.

Let's go for a swim!

The garden is hanging in there and I plan on harvesting the Romain lettuce soon. The potatoes are growing like mad and we added some soil to them today. We are beginning to think about what we may want to plant for a fall garden. It's almost June so we have to start planning now. We are also thinking about ordering some berry bushes so we can get them planted this year. It will be a slow process to get all of the trees and bushes that we want but we just have to take it one step at a time.

As we make progress on the chicken coop I will post pictures and keep you updated on the progress of the chicks and geese. In the meantime, Happy Memorial Day!

Potatoes before we added more soil.