Through the eyes of a chick
"We're not babies anymore, you know," the chicks
complained Friday. "Don't you think it's about time you let us
leave our room?"
"Okay, okay," I
conceded, peeling back the wall of cardboard I'd used to separate the
chicks from the rest of the coop. Within seconds, intrepid
youngsters had figured out how to jump through the holes in the trellis
gate and were exploring their new domain. Chaos ensued as the
chicks took dust baths, scratched up worms, snagged gnats in mid-air,
and even poked their beaks out the pophole into the pasture. (The
wide world was a bit too scary, though, so they scampered back inside.)
"What's all this ruckus
about?" asked the young golden comet.
A flurry of wings and
cheeps later, every chick had darted back behind the gate.
"Nothing to see here, I guess," said the hen, turning to go back
outside.
"But, wait! What's
that little fuzzball?"
"Hello?
Hello? Is somebody over there?"
"Maybe we're not old
enough to play with the big kids yet after all," the chicks declared,
settling down for a rest.
"You know best," I
answered, rolling my eyes. "Just remember, the
brooder belongs to a new batch of chicks in a week and a half."
Nobody answered. I
guess two and a half week old chicks still need naptime.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
How cute! I subscribe to your blog via Google Reader, so I'm constantly able to read your updates. I have to say that your posts about the chicks have been a favorite of mine lately. I guess I'm just a sucker for baby animals!
Anyway, this was a great post to wake up to this lovely Saturday morning. Thanks!
Anna, when are you going to write some children's books? I've been after you for years to write nature/animal stories for children. Most children now days do not know anything about farm animals or even much about nature. Go for it!!! The way you wrote about these chicks is wonderful.
Sheila
Nope, these are black australorps. They do seem to be smaller than the hybrid golden comet/rhode island red that is about three days older, but what they lack in size, they make up for in vigor. They've been out foraging in the pasture every day this week!
That said, if you're raising broilers, they would be much bigger than this. I was reading one person's blog with photos of laying hen vs. broiler chicks at this age, and the broilers were twice as big!