The Chicks Have Landed
So, day before yesterday, I got a sudden e-mail from the chicken lady: the eggs had hatched! We could come get our chicks any time.
So we scrambled around, and brought our little flock home today. These Welsummer girls are only little babies, and they’ll have to live inside for the next several weeks. At six weeks or so, they’ll be hardy enough to transition to the backyard coop.
Their names are Henrietta, Penelope, and Genevieve—or Henny, Penny, and Jenny when they’re at home. We can’t tell them apart, but that’s fine, as I have not yet had any need to address them individually.
Right now I’m keeping a careful eye on them to make sure that their living space is the right temperature, and that their food and water don’t get fouled up. They have the most adorable habit of just all deciding to suddenly take a nap, at the same time, wherever they are. They just kind of…nod off, for a few minutes, often faceplanting right in the pine shavings. Then one of them wakes up, and they go off to explore for a little bit. They are like tiny, fluffy narcoleptics.
Robin is hovering over the brooder, giving the chicks encouragement and advice. “Don’t fight, baby chicks! You could be friendly. They are saying, okay, we could be friendly. Wow, those baby chicks is three. One, two, three. Three baby chicks. Like Davy, he’s a baby. Those are baby chicks. A baby chick is a kind of chicken that looks like a duck. And they could fly away in the sky. What about a rooster could reach the top of the barn? Whoa, that chick flies. Like that! Those chicks fly up in the sky. What the chicks are saying? Wheeeee! And they fly into their new home. They’re nice baby chicks at the house.”
May 2nd, 2012 at 8:47 pm
!!!!!!!!
I also like that their feeder looks like a mini-hubcap.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:07 pm
My chicks roll in style, yo.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Jessie, Jessie, aren’t they beautiful?
Look at their eyes, like they’re outlined in Egyptian kohl. Aren’t they like tiny beautiful chicken princesses? Aren’t they gorgeous?
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:10 pm
I think they must be the most beautiful chicks that were ever, ever born. They are so pretty, they remind me of quail.
May 3rd, 2012 at 6:23 am
Oh, this is just marvelous! Congratulations–enjoy. I have very happy memories of hovering over the baby chick box as a child–the warmth from the heat lamp, that very particular smell. I love Robin’s words of encouragement. 🙂 “A baby chick is a kind of chicken that looks like a duck.” Delightful.
May 3rd, 2012 at 8:10 am
Robin has taken to “reading” stories to the baby chicks — he gets one of his books and sort of narrates the events shown in the pictures. It was particularly great when he was reading to them about Batman.
May 3rd, 2012 at 3:38 pm
It’s really happening. How exciting. I love it that Robin is reading to them–and about Batman.