Pleasantly Palatable: Bock, Bock!

A few weeks ago I got word from one of my brothers that he bought some chicks. I didn't know at the time why anyone would buy them but then looked into it and thought how cool it would be to go out in the morning and collect the fresh eggs.

Well, a week later I found myself surprising my kids with them. When I pulled up into the parking lot at Cal-Ranch my son Hunter and daughter Kennedy both said, "This doesn't look like a fun place!"

It was fun after they knew we were going to buy some chicks! Surprise! Kennedy's jaw dropped open and she said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

We brought them home and put them in a large Tupperware box and put their feeder and waterer in the box along with some newspaper. (We now use pine shavings. The chicks like to scratch around in it--it also cuts down on the smell :) ). We also put the heat lamp up and watched them in their new brooder. They love it!

Before they can go outside we have to wait five to six weeks until they are 'feathered-out.' Then they can be moved into their new home. For their coop, I'm going to convert an old doghouse we own into a coop with a run out in the backyard beneath the deck. Check out the pics below:

Aren't they so cute! Our kids named them Sunflower (Buff Orpington or BO), Snowflake (Buff Orpington), Red Head (Rhode Island Red or RIR), Fluffy (Rhode Island Red)

The Buff Orpington's are the light 'buff' colored chicks and the Rhode Island Red's are the, yep, you guessed it--the red ones.

They are getting tired. You can see head bobbing towards the floor!

They made a mess of the brooder so that gave me an idea :)

I put a mixture of shredded newspaper and pine chips in their brooder. (As you can see they like to make a mess of their waterer too.)

Also there's a new addition: a perch! This will help them practice roosting. It also gives them a place to sleep so they don't have to lay in their own poop while they sleep :)

I got tired of the newspaper and went with the pine shavings, it's much better.

Snowflake (the small BO not on the perch) had a difficult time getting up on the perch to roost. She's the runt of the four. So I made some arrangements.