Baby Chicks!

This past week we grew our family by six!  Six little baby chicks, that is.  
I've always wanted chickens and goats for as long as I can remember and while goats are a no-go in our neighborhood, chickens are something we can do!  Our little one LOVES animals so we figured now would be a great time to introduce some chickens to our family.  

It's. So. FLUFFY!

As far as breed goes, we were hoping to get New Hampshire Reds but chickens are getting to be a hot commodity around here and were selling out fast at all the local farm & garden stores.  Therefore we decided to settle for Rhode Island Reds instead, a very similar breed.  

| Keeping Chickens by Ashley English |

My husband has grown up with chickens so we already have an experienced chicken farmer in the house, but since I don't know too much about keeping chickens I've been doing my homework ;)  

Meeting the girls!  Miss M loved the chicks and kept laughing and pointing at them while Harley didn't really care much about them at all.  That's pretty funny because if Harley sees a robin in the lawn she will charge it and chase it out of the yard in a heartbeat.  

Sorry this bathroom is occupied!  

Our guest bathroom will be home to these ladies for the next month or so until they get big enough to move to the coop.  In this box they have shavings, water, chick starter feed, and a heat lamp above.  Hubby made a window out of Plexiglas so Miss M and Harley can keep an eye on the chickies (we put a baby gate across the doorway so they can't get too close though).  

It's just incredible how fast they grow!  In less than a week they went from sweet, tiny little balls of fluff to much more wary, bigger little chickens - complete with wings and tail feathers coming in.  It won't be too much longer until we can move them out into the coop!