Chicken Truths

Remember just a few weeks ago I posted my announcement about getting chickens?  Remember these cute pictures I shared...

Such adorable, sweet, fluffy, balls of cute, right?  Well, three weeks into a chicks life, you go through a scary  transformation.  They are getting their feathers, they are getting big and awkward.  So, I present to you these lovely pictures of my three week old chickosaurses.

Thought this lady was a production red, but after further research think she is a red sex-link.

CHICKZILLA!

Thought this lady was going to be a leghorn.  They are pure white...but...she just got a dark feather!

One of our barred rocks.

Thought this was a barred rock, now totally unsure.  Could be an australorp, or cuckoo maran.

On the left a maybe barred rock, a barred rock.

 

Another maybe australorp, maybe cuckoo maran.

Barred rock rooster!

Talk about your assortments!  As you can see, my cutie patooties are slowly morphing into dinosaurs of some type.  They are gaga over treats of any type...in fact...here's a video of them chowing down on blueberries.  Pardon the tv in the background...I totally forgot to mute it!

Here are some things I've learned so far from having chicks...

-they are messy.  As in, they don't care where they poop, the love scratching through their shavings and flicking them into their grit, food, and water.

-they eat a lot.  As in three weeks we've gone through almost an entire 40 pound bag of food.

-they love treats.  My chicks were scared of me before the introduction of treats, now they flock to my hand when I put it in.  Now, if I walk by without throwing something to them they give me the stink eye!

-they constantly peep.  They only stop when they sleep and even then usually someone is awake to peepy cheep.

-they don't sleep as much as I though.  With most newborn animals they sleep a lot.  Chicks don't.  They sleep for maybe 15-30 minutes at a time before they are playing and scratching and eating.

-they do chicken things when they are chicks.  I though they would be clumsy babies, and it would take time to learn chicken skills.  However, I put a stick in there and they knew they should try to sleep on it, they scratch and forage for food like pros, and you should see them dust bathe!

-they grow so fast.  Within 3 days of having them I noticed they looked bigger, and husband confirmed.  Now at three weeks we're at this crazy feather growing stage.  We have only about 20 weeks until we get our first egg!

-they are not picky.  They don't care what their coop, or brooder look like.  They just care about each other and food.