Monday, May 07, 2012

Chicks Abound

 Yes it is officially spring; and with spring comes baby animals.  Here at our farm LOTS of baby animals.
First, back in late April (yes I am tardy posting about this :) we received a call at 5:30 in the morning that there was a box of fuzzy little cheeping fluff balls waiting for us at the post office.
 So we cheerfully dragged ourselves out of bed and a couple of us went to fetch the chickies while the rest finished up some last minute preparation and waited.
 Need I tell you that they are positively adorable!! 24 chicks were added to our farm that morning, 5 different breeds, all absolutely darling.  We have 5 Partridge rocks (one above that is proudly showing off her stripes) 
And currently 6 Americana chicks, of all stripes and colors.
We just love their poofy cheeks!!

6 Black Australorps who currently look like little penguins,
5 Buff Orpington pullets and one unknown blondish boy chick.
And last but definitely not least is our free exotic chick the stylish fur-booted Partridge Cochin.
Sadie Rose likes our fluffy additions too!
 Then... a week later, Charity's Banty hen hatched out 4 darling tiny minuscule chicks.
Can we cue the "Aww"s please!?!  :)
One of the tiny marvels of God's creation.
 Two days later our big hen in the laying coop began hatching eggs.  Shells were cracking left and right, and before we knew it we had a happy family of 9 chicks cuddled under their mommy hen.
 6 of the first 9 were Americana chicks we were hatching our for our sister-in-law Theresa, the rest were pale blond Buff/Delaware mixes.
 The next day the last two hatched, creating the rather large group of 11.
We took the Americanas away (yes we felt horrible) to give to Theresa and left Sissy, our hen, with 4 matching blondies.
 One sunny afternoon we took the chickies (the older ones on the porch) outside for the first time in their lives.
 They were thrilled!!!
 Everything had to be poked at and the grass had to be tasted. 
 So as you can see we truly do have an abundance of activity here at the farm, and that is only half of it.  The rest is yet to come.
~Chs