Hence, I've been out nursing a garden along, painting the barn, building a chicken coop, and nurturing eleven baby chicks through their first few weeks! How fun is this! This is great fun and I can't recommend the experience highly enough. Our city leaders see fit to allow up to fifteen chickens in a backyard; even a rooster is allowable provided Mr. Cluck doesn't annoy the neighbors. Already I'm watching the chicks for signs of rooster machismo and crossing my fingers that they are all hens. There's got to be one or two roosters in the bunch I figure, so we are trying not to get too attached (because the roosters aren't staying).
The chicks have been here almost two weeks - they arrived as day-old hatchlings from www.mypetchicken.com. Their yolk sac sustains them for up to 48 hours post hatch so they can be shipped immediately as long as they are kept warm. My Pet Chicken is one of the only places I am aware of that will ship fewer than twenty-five chicks at a time, which is great! During cooler weather they put a special heating pack in the box with the chicks so they stay nice and toasty.
So, Max and I have been learning the ropes about chickens in the hopes that we'll have fresh eggs in the spring. This isn't formal homeschooling, but I do like that he gets to see where food comes from and what it takes to produce that food. Right now he's interested because the chicks are so darn cute! We've named them all and are enjoying our time with them. We did a little photo shoot last week, so here are a couple of the chicks:
This is Ethel, a white Silkie bantam chick about one week old
Tallulah, an Easter Egger
And Freckles, a bantam partridge Silkie
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