It seems like seven weeks have just flown by! The once tiny fluffy chicks are halfway to adulthood already.

It’s hard to believe these tiny little chicken nuggets could fit in the palm of even the little kiddos hands not long ago.

Now they have all of their feathers and take two hands to hold. I try to grab them with one hand out of habit and then realize they are way too big for that.

Now that we have chicks (and a tree house and a zipline) we have visitors almost every day.

It’s like we’ve turned into the neighborhood petting zoo (with only one kind of animal, HA!) and I’m not even a little bit mad about.

 

 

 

 

Each one of the kids has really bonded with the chicks. At first, it was hard to tell who was who, but now we definitely know each one by name and they pretty much all have their own personality too!

Z named Zelda  (the grey bird in the pic) and if you know my gamer son then you know where that name derived from. Zelda is a Blue Rock from Mt. Healhy Hatchery.

Ezie named this bird White Stripes. There has been talk of changing her name because the bird is not striped or even a little bit white. Maybe the chick is a fan of the retro Jack White band? Anyway, she’s a golden Laced Wyandotte and despite her stuffy attitude, she is a keeper… at least for now.

 

Elle Is holding  “Bootsie” in this photo. Bootsie is a Buff Brahma and she is a doll! She’s so sweet and loves everybody.

In this photo I am holding “Penguin”. She used to look like a baby penguin when she first hatched.

She’s super scrawny and will probably only weigh four pounds when full grown. She’s a fun scrappy girl though. If there is a bug or worm around she WILL be the one to catch it. It never fails.

 

Lastly (for this blog post anyway) this is Sunshine on SJ’s head. She is a Buff Orpington. They are known for being friendly and she definitely is! Elle named her when she was a new chick. It seemed like a fitting name since she was all yellow, but now it’s fitting because she has such a sunny personality.

 

 

I  don’t want to make raising chickens sound like it’s all sunshine and nap time. We’ve loved the experience so far and when we had chicks in the past, however, it takes time and dedication. Once things get going the chicks mostly take care of themselves, but man the set up is a lot of work.

Since we are behind on finishing the coop and the run we have to “babysit” the chicks EVERY DAY. We can’t let them be totally  free range. In fact, we assured our neighbors the chicks wouldn’t just be wandering around in their yards. We also know that there are dogs and hawks during the day. Don’t even get me started on what’s running around at night, but we are trying to build a predator-proof home for our little ladies. Anway, it’s been fun taking care of the chicks, but having someone outside with them at all waking hours is NOT sustainable. Thank goodness my gorgeous hen house is almost finished!

They are sleeping in it at night now and when the run is done they can just carry on and go about their business from sun up to sundown. We have to finish it though.

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We primed the outside today and my incredible husband is doing an amazing job on the whole thing.

He doesn’t do things halfway so we’re all in now! Despite all the hard work, I don’t regret the decision so far. We have conversations about whether or it was a bad idea. Then we discuss how crazy we must be, but in the end we always decide we are happy to have hens and they seem happy to have us.