They’re so FLUFFY!

It started with a typical Saturday; cleaning the house and running errands. Jenna has asked if I would take her to Hobby Lobby for some new knitting needles. Natalie heard Hobby Lobby and wanted to come, too. So we first went to monster craft store, and after a bit of wandering, we found what we needed. Natalie even found a chef’s hat and was able to use her 40% off coupon to get it for cheap!

Next was a stop at IFA for chicken feed. While I was paying for my 50 pound bag, Jenna said, “Mom, I hear chicks, can I go see them?”
“Chicks? Ok.” I looked at the sales girl and asked, “You have chicks already?”
After I escorted the nice teenager who was carrying my feed to the car, I came back and found the girls by the chicks.

OH THE CUTENESS!

We pet those little chirping balls of fluff and looked at the chart, but we did not succumb to the cuteness. I did, however, send a text to Ryan that said, “Girls are looking at the chicks at IFA. The cuteness is almost more than we can bear.”

WE went off and finished our errands for the day, and when we came home, Ryan said, “I’m kind of surprised that you didn’t pick up some chicks while you were out.”
What? You mean you are on board with that? If you remember, Ryan was ANTI-CHICKEN for a long long time, until I pushed him into chicken ownership. But he’s come on board.
“How many chickens do you ultimately want to have?” he asked.

I said that I thought 6 was a good number.
“Well, then we should probably get 4 or 5 chicks, right?”

Shock. Still can’t believe he’s encouraging me to get chicks.

So, Monday, after dinner, we scooted on over to IFA to pick out some chicks. The fluffiness and cutitude is quite overpowering. We bought 5.
We ended up with two Black Australorps and 3 Ameraucanas. When they are grown up they should look something like these:

When we brought them home they looked like this. We put them in a box with food, water, and a light.

And Ryan, the reluctant chicken owner, seems to be just as enamored with them as the rest of us are.

After a week, we can tell that they are getting bigger. Still fluffy and cute, though.

One thing I didn’t know about chicks was how STINKY they are. I thought I would keep them in my office just to keep an eye on them, but after one day of that, they were moved to the basement. I had originally filled their box with shavings, but now I realize we’re going to have to clean out their box every day, and a friend told me that newspaper is easier. We have one little black chick (the kids are calling her ‘Penguin’) who likes to jump, and she can be frequently seen on the top of the water dish. We’ve already switched them to a bigger box, but we need to take other measures to keep that one from jumping out.

Ryan called me down today to see that chick was standing on the edge of the box, contemplating her escape. It was then that Ryan fashioned a ‘cone of shame’ to put on top of the water feeder so that if she gets up there again, she’ll just slide off.

So, keep on tuning in to see their progress!