The very first farm animal we got after moving in here were our chicks. Cute little fuzzy peeps, only a day or so old. They are quickly growing into larger chicks and are running out of room in their two brooders (housing for young chicks) as they grow. I started out with one medium size brooder and 9 chicks. Very soon after I added 5 more chicks and moved them all to a larger brooder. Later I needed to separate the 2 oldest chicks from the rest for more room and to stop some bullying that I think was happening due to the lack of space. Chickens tend to be more aggressive in their "pecking order" when there isn't much room to spare. So that brings us to where we are now- 2 good sized brooders in our garage bathroom... full of chicks! We currently have 3- 4 1/2 weeks old, 9- 5 1/2 weeks old and 2- 7 1/2 weeks old, since we bought from 3 separate hatch dates. We're about 99% sure the 7 1/2 week olds are pullets (females), but the others are still too young to tell, so we're playing the waiting game. Some are easier to tell apart, others you just have to wait until they crow or lay an egg! We'll keep our fingers crossed that we have lots of girls. Here are some pics from babies to now.
The very first day-olds we brought home!
After we added the second group we brought home (which included 2 that were already 3 weeks or so)
Their first outdoor adventure!
Getting a little bigger!
And here they are now!
And, yes- this is in the garage bathroom. The oldest girls are able to get out of their brooder when the cover is off, so when I'm in there changing out food & water, they like to explore. Until today it had only been to the top edge of the brooder to look around, but this one decided she wanted to see more of the room.
Oh, and they are all named. You have officially been introduced to: Pixie, Trixie, Buffy, Layna, Belle, Tink, Dee Dee, Kiki, Sweetie, Dot, Rosetta, Rory, Lorelai & Apple Jac.
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