The chickens arrived this morning from Dare 2 Dream Farms. It was a fairly unceramonious transfer and took place in about 10 minutes. The farm workers took the chickens out of their cute van and plopped them in the hen house, filled the feeder they brought for us, instructed us to fill the waterer, and that was it.
The chickens promptly found the part of the house that was furthest away from us, the scary humans, and nestled together, squawking tremendously. After an hour or so, they ventured out to eat from Kate's palm.
After a couple of hours, they hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out the ladder that would lead them out of the hen house and into the larger coop and run. So we lifted them out and put them by the water, and they started drinking right away.
After drinking and eating, they snuggled down to have a nap in the sun.
At 5:30, we helped them up the ladder, with them squawking the entire time, so much so that Kate thought we were hurting them and cried a little bit. Kate has been very active with the chickens all day, sitting in the coop with them and handling them gently. Adam is very interested in helping us care for them and wanted to make sure he knew where all the feed/supplies were kept. The kids are fascinated by this whole adventure. As are others; we had three sets of visitors today, as well as some random neighborhood kids.
We got two Rhode Island Reds, two Plymouth Barred Rocks, and two Easter Eggers. Here is a good picture of one of each of them.
The two Barred Rocks (black and white) are called Hermione Granger and Minerva McGonagall, as they seem clever and brave. The two Reds are called Ginny and Molly, as the Weasleys are red-haired, and the two Easter Eggers are called Luna Lovegood and Professor Sprout. We can tell the two Easter Eggers apart, but we can't tell Hermione and Minerva apart, nor Ginny and Molly. They are all quite lovely though I think the Easter Eggers have the most beautiful feathers, at least right now.
The chickens don't seem like awkward teenagers at all, they just seem like miniature chickens. So far they seem fairly uninterested in eating anything except their 'baby' food - crumbles with vitamins added in. As they grow, I imagine they will enjoy all sorts of our scraps.
Already, the poop is copious. I'm glad we got two new compost bins built, out of pallets, for the coop waste.
Nothing makes you feel more like a genuine farmer than hauling straw bales around. Those suckers are HEAVY.
It was an exhausting day, and we didn't even get that much done around here - just welcoming our new livestock was tiring enough. Hope they stay warm tonight and the opossums stay away!!!
The chickens promptly found the part of the house that was furthest away from us, the scary humans, and nestled together, squawking tremendously. After an hour or so, they ventured out to eat from Kate's palm.
After a couple of hours, they hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out the ladder that would lead them out of the hen house and into the larger coop and run. So we lifted them out and put them by the water, and they started drinking right away.
After drinking and eating, they snuggled down to have a nap in the sun.
At 5:30, we helped them up the ladder, with them squawking the entire time, so much so that Kate thought we were hurting them and cried a little bit. Kate has been very active with the chickens all day, sitting in the coop with them and handling them gently. Adam is very interested in helping us care for them and wanted to make sure he knew where all the feed/supplies were kept. The kids are fascinated by this whole adventure. As are others; we had three sets of visitors today, as well as some random neighborhood kids.
We got two Rhode Island Reds, two Plymouth Barred Rocks, and two Easter Eggers. Here is a good picture of one of each of them.
The two Barred Rocks (black and white) are called Hermione Granger and Minerva McGonagall, as they seem clever and brave. The two Reds are called Ginny and Molly, as the Weasleys are red-haired, and the two Easter Eggers are called Luna Lovegood and Professor Sprout. We can tell the two Easter Eggers apart, but we can't tell Hermione and Minerva apart, nor Ginny and Molly. They are all quite lovely though I think the Easter Eggers have the most beautiful feathers, at least right now.
The chickens don't seem like awkward teenagers at all, they just seem like miniature chickens. So far they seem fairly uninterested in eating anything except their 'baby' food - crumbles with vitamins added in. As they grow, I imagine they will enjoy all sorts of our scraps.
Already, the poop is copious. I'm glad we got two new compost bins built, out of pallets, for the coop waste.
Nothing makes you feel more like a genuine farmer than hauling straw bales around. Those suckers are HEAVY.
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| Another use for the tried and true little red wagon |