New Chickens

Well - this was TOO cute not to add to this page, but it belongs at the bottom. The new chicks are 9 weeks old. We are worrked about the established flock picking on them. So - - we built them a little sanctuary UNDER the next boxes! They have their feeder in there - and are close to the water. Turkey & Blondie don't seem to care if all these little ones are down underneath! David even put the JAIL BARS on hinges so it would be easy to get the feeder in and out and to rescue a chick if need be or clean out the chips! These dumb chicks don't know how pampered and lucky they are!

These chicks were hatched in TEXAS on St. Patricks Day. They arrived here 2 days later. David picked them up from the post office, returned here around 5:30. The PEEPING woke all of us up! The 10 black ones are baby ROOSTERS - they were quickly DISPENSED with - - we gave them to a friend who raises birds for meat!
Here is Ingrid in the enlarged chicken yard with the babies. They are about 5 weeks old here. By this time they had been moved OUT of the mud-room, and into a larger brooder in the garage. As I write - they are 9 weeks old - and it is time to get them OUT OF THE GARAGE and into the coop with the rest of the flock.

More from 5 weeks old - outside.

This pre-dates the new chicks. None of our 7 chickens seemed to have any problem with the winter weather. We did keep a heat lamp in the coop for extremely cold weather.

And, there are plenty of the WILD variety of birds around here still. Here are turkeys in the front yard stealing spilled seed from under a bird feeder!