A New Arrival

We have welcomed a new..or should I say, a few new arrivals here at the Lyman house!  Cute, fluffy, *adorable* baby chicks!!

I wanted chickens for a few years now, but the last year, I've totally hankered to be a chicken-keeper or chicken whisperer...or chicken shepherd, or whatever you call it.  So, considering we may have a few other changes coming our way, why the heck not?!  Throw it on the pile, right?

Here's a looky-loo at our sweet baby girls!

 I thought maybe I would start with four, but I wouldn't be happy if I lost a few (which happens) and I only had two or three left.  So...I bought six, which is actually what they recommend for a happy little flock.

 We gleaned a HUGE dryer box from our friend, and cut it to size.  The chicken ladies will be in there for about 8 weeks.  We bought the heat lamp and bulb, the feeder, the water-dispenser, the pecking block (so they don't get bored), the pine shavings and the food itself...oh, and the chicks of course.

 So what kinds do I have?  Two Barred Plymouth Rock's, two Golden Sex Link's, one Auracana, and one Brahma Bantam.  I'll have mostly brown eggs, but the Bantam will give me pretty green/blue ones, and they should start laying around four months of age.  All of them average around laying 4x a week, except the Bantam, which lays around 3x a week.

 Below, on the left is a Barred Rock, middle is the Auracana, and right is the Sex Link.

 Marin likes the Sex Link 'blondies'.  She is so gentle with them and talks to them while she's holding them, so cute!

Before I even checked out at the store, I noticed one of the Barred Rocks was pecking all the other chicks in the eye, and I thought that maybe I should just exchange it, and I asked the cashier who just told me it was up to me.  I took it home anyway, thinking she was just stressed out, and just needed some food, water and space and she would calm down...although I still knew that if I kept her, she would for SURE be the top chick in the pecking order.  I watched her for about two hours as she ate and drank and napped, and she was *still* going after the other chicks, and I worried I would wake up to eye-ball-less baby chicks in the morning!  So I ended up taking her back and exchanging her (it might has even been a him!), which they don't normally do, but since I was just there a few hours before, they were nice to me.  The new Barred Rock is just as pleasant and happy as the other chicks, so a happy ending.

Hopefully my chicky-poos will make it through the night!  I'm super excited to be a chicken owner, and to get me some niiiice fresh eggs.  But in the meantime, we'll have fun them.