The other day Shawn was passing the time while I finished getting dinner ready by roaming through the postings on Craigslist. And low and behold he found a posting for free baby chicks. A guy in town had his plans change and he was giving away 18 baby chicks--just three days old! So after dinner we went over to his house intending to get 2 or 3 and came home with 4! Now before you think we just gave in because they were so cute--you're only half right! :) They definitely are cute, but we realized looking at them how fragile they truly are and how 3 chicks may not necessarily turn into 3 hens, if you know what I mean. And also, there's not a 100% guarantee that these are all females. Sometimes the hatchery gets it wrong. So we decided to get a little more insurance with an extra chick. And then just look at them! They're adorable! And their sweet little peeps are just as adorable as they look.
For the next several weeks they will be hanging out in a cardboard box in our shop (garage) with a heat lamp. And just as you'd expect, they act like newborns. The other day I stepped out to check on them to find one of them had fallen asleep with it's face in the feed trough. The poor little thing was just too tired to finish eating!
But this afternoon I took them out to the backyard for a field trip and photo shoot.
I think they liked getting out. They definitely seemed to like the chance to explore and discover new things.
And I let the kids hold them for a bit, which they (the kids) loved, of course .
This picture sort of makes me think of the Loony Tunes cartoon with the abominable snowman who finds Bugs Bunny and says something like "I'm going to love you and hold you and squeeze you..."
And I promise that his shirt doesn't just say that he's a monster. It's got a monster truck on it. :)
A little more calm in the gentle hands of Shawn.
The big boys also decided that today was as good as any day to expand the chicken coop. This will give them better space to stay warm in the winter and more room for when all 8 chickens are in the coop together.
The space on the left side of this picture (the gray-er colored wood) was all newly constructed today.
I kept thinking of today as "Extreme Makeover: Chicken Coop Edition"! :)
power tools can be noisy
Here are the big girls (as we're calling them lately) checking out their new coop space. The guys got it all finished up today. Pretty impressive I think.
So just in case you had wondered if we were still enjoying the whole chicken "farming" thing, the answer is a definite YES!
Look at all the sunshine you're getting. How nice. I think we've had your rainy and cloudy weather. I love the backdrop to your yard... forest. Ah. Beautiful. I agree chickens are a lot of fun and the eggs are wonderful.
How fun! The babies are so cute, the ones with feathers and also the ones with flip flops on. I'm sure the chicks will love their "wing" of the coop. And the guys will have less grass to mow too.
Angela, thanks for commenting. I know you're out there reading so it's nice to hear from you. And yes, that hat is great. It's cute and expands well. I'm sure there's two or more years left in it. And you should keep working on Jack about chickens, they really are quite easy and fun. Megan, yes, we appreciate all our Pac NW friends putting up with all the rain lately because we've been getting SO much sunshine! And we're loving it. Just think of us during the rest of the summer when you all have great weather we'll probably be getting rained on. And the forest behind our yard is one of my favorite parts about our house. It's forest service land too, so it probably won't change anytime soon or without plenty of warning. And Mom, if the chicken coop keeps expanding in the future I'll definitely wonder if Shawn is just trying to chip away at more of the yard.
6 comments:
I love it when he wears that OU hat. Shannon got Blake the exact same one!! You are making me want some Chickens. I'm going to keep working on Jack!
Look at all the sunshine you're getting. How nice. I think we've had your rainy and cloudy weather. I love the backdrop to your yard... forest. Ah. Beautiful. I agree chickens are a lot of fun and the eggs are wonderful.
How fun! The babies are so cute, the ones with feathers and also the ones with flip flops on. I'm sure the chicks will love their "wing" of the coop. And the guys will have less grass to mow too.
The chicks look so cute.
Angela, thanks for commenting. I know you're out there reading so it's nice to hear from you. And yes, that hat is great. It's cute and expands well. I'm sure there's two or more years left in it. And you should keep working on Jack about chickens, they really are quite easy and fun.
Megan, yes, we appreciate all our Pac NW friends putting up with all the rain lately because we've been getting SO much sunshine! And we're loving it. Just think of us during the rest of the summer when you all have great weather we'll probably be getting rained on. And the forest behind our yard is one of my favorite parts about our house. It's forest service land too, so it probably won't change anytime soon or without plenty of warning.
And Mom, if the chicken coop keeps expanding in the future I'll definitely wonder if Shawn is just trying to chip away at more of the yard.
Those chicks are so adorable. Nice coop, too.
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