The Chicks

It has been awhile since I posted since we know have chicks! We continued to get eggs and one of the hens decided she wanted to be a Mama. She sat and waited paitiently and now has 3 chicks! Oh, they are so cute! She has more eggs but I am not sure that they are going to hatch?? I went out this morning and one of the eggs had broken open that had no chick...can you say SMELLY!! Rotten egg is not what I want to smell first thing in the morning. YUCK!

Mama Hen is hiding the little chick!

Our first little chick! After the first chick hatched, I decided to bring some eggs inside so we could watch them hatch. We had three that had started to peck there way out. Unfortunately, one died in the process. However, Abby thought is was facinating to open the egg after it passed and take a closer look. It is truly amazing how they can fit inside of the egg all scrunched up.

Abby and Bentley watching the chicks hatch!

Pecking their way out!

1:30am I hear the dogs going nuts so I get up to see what they're barking at. Then I hear peeping so I went to check on the chicks and this is what I found. The yellow chick must have just hatched, it was still a little wet and all wobbly. The black chick is only half way out.

In the morning when I woke they were both hatched!
They are oh so tiny!

I had just finished cleaning the coop today and the chicks got up on their Mama after I put them back in. I thought it was pretty cute! The yellow chick is under Mama Hen so you can't see it.

We have eggs!

Guess my chickens are thanking me for keeping them warm and giving them a nice warm breakfast!! Yesterday, I let down their ramp and a lonely egg rolled down. While I was going to get Steven to get it, I came back to find the chickens eating it. YUCK!!! I was disappointed and really hoped this wouldn't become a habit.
Today I went out to let them out, but I check their nest before letting down the ramp and lo and behold they had laid me three eggs. Oh they are so little and cute.

Chickens

I have kind of been toying with the idea of getting some chickens since spring time. Talking with Pete he wasn't so sure about the idea, but had said if we did get chickens he didn't want anything to do with them. Well, the boys spent the night at Gramma's house this past weekend, she called to tell me the boys were asking if they could take home some of Gramma's chickens. Guess what I said? Yes, we now have 5 cute, well I guess they are kind of cute, chickens!

Pete was such a sweetheart, even after saying he wanted nothing to do with them he built an awesome chicken coop. More than I could have done, although I would have tried! He is such a sport!! I spent one morning on the computer looking at different coops and decided I wanted one that we could move around the yard...a chicken tractor, and this is what he built. He was even so kind that once it was built I decided we needed a door down below and he put it in without to much grumbling.

In this picture you can see that the one side opens up so that when they start laying eggs we can easily collect them. I still need to put in their nesting boxes and their roosting bar, but you get the idea.

Steven even helped put the chicken ladder on. He was so excited to be able to use the air gun. There is a rope on a pulley system that will close up the ladder at night, which I think is pretty clever.

It hooks up to the lawn mower for transporting around the yard. You can see in this picture that we ran out of roofing, so it isn't totally complete yet. Back to Lowes we go. Here you can also see how the top part closes up to keep them safe at night.

Right now we have the tractor under the apple tree, they should be quite happy there for awhile. The dogs are quite fasinated by them too!
I thought I would share this cool picture Austin took of his chicken "Mellow Yellow" Isn't it neat?