It’s hard to believe it’s been almost six weeks since I received the box in the mail containing eight fuzzy little baby chicks. All of the chicks, except one, grew like weeds and have been thriving. Sadly, I lost one of the little white chicks, named Della.
three-day-old chicks
Once the chicks arrived, my hubby, Ed, got busy renovating a place for the new baby chicks to live. Ed had to add a tin roof to an existing chicken run, then build a new chicken coop for them to sleep and lay eggs in.
Ed, hard at work
Unfortunately, Ed hasn’t been feeling his best, so construction of the new chicken housing took a little longer than it normally would have. By the time Ed got the housing finished, those cute fuzzy chicks had grown to look like this:
four weeks old already
In spite of a few setbacks, this past weekend, Ed finally completed the new coop enough so the ‘new girls’ could move in. He still needs to build some perches, and add window coverings, while I need to paint, but we can do that this weekend.
I designated Monday, of this week, as ‘Moving Day’, so I went outside and prepared the coop with a light and some fresh shavings. Then I removed one of the smaller cardboard boxes from the end of the ‘chicken condo’, where the chicks had been living (in our pool room) for the past five weeks. About this time, it hit me that the cardboard box might not fit through the door of the chicken run! I held my breath as I quickly carried the [rather large] box containing the chicks outside (and past several curious cats)! Luck was with me, because the box fit through the door–barely! Another quarter of an inch, and I’d have been in trouble!
Monday was a warm, sunny day, so I just sat the cardboard box inside of the chicken run, and pulled myself up a chair. Before long, the girls were darting in and out of the box exploring their new surroundings, while I sat and watched.
first time being outside
It didn’t take the girls long to figure out how to climb up the ladder to go inside of their coop, with the exception of two of them. (I quickly had flashbacks of my first flock of chicks, with me chasing ‘Renny Henny’ around the chicken run at bedtime.) Sometimes a couple of chicks are a little slow to figure things out, but they eventually learn!
checking out the ladder and the sand below…
Ed added a sandbox under the coop, and the chicks seemed to like that! They haven’t figured out it’s for dusting their feathers, yet, but they like roosting on its sides and walking in the sand. He put a large ‘picture window’ in the front side of the coop, too, and they really seem to like that! In fact, the girls seem to like their coop so much, they don’t want to spend much time playing outside! I suppose it feels warmer and safer inside…
warm and cozy inside of the coop…
One other thing brings back memories of my first flock of chickens. Those ‘hungry eyes’ I keep seeing lurking around the chicken pen! Just like before, some of my cats are obsessed with trying to get inside of the chicken run! It’s no wonder the chicks like it better inside of their coop!
‘Baby’, the cat, stalking ‘Dixie’, the chicken
The girls have spent three nights in their new home, and I think they love it! I can see them out there, at night, (thanks to that ‘picture window’) playing when they should be sleeping! They’re going to be sad when they lose their light bulb (heat source) once they turn six weeks old. They’ll be fully feathered, and will need sleep more than heat, by then.
As for me, I’m slowly getting used to the quietness of the house again. I miss the little chirping sounds baby chicks made. I think my parakeet, ‘Tweety’, probably misses them, too. Yesterday, I heard him actually imitating their little chirping sounds!
What I don’t miss is the dusty mess these baby chicks made–or the disarray their presence caused in the pool room! It will take me another day or so to remove the rest of the chicken supplies, uncover the furniture, and finish cleaning and dusting the pool room, but soon things will be back to normal. Once again, Ed and I will have an ‘empty nest’ :)