Four Little Chicks

Our babies have been the main focus of our lives ever since we received them:

brand-new babies, still with a layer of paper towels on top of their wood shavings

I do make the girls wash their hands after touching the chicks, but I should probably also make them wash their faces!

Every day, Willow weighs each chick and writes what it's been doing that day in her chick journal.

I don't remember when I bought this postal scale, but we use the HECK out of it!

Our brooder is a clear plastic bin, lid cut out in the middle and chicken wire taped to it.

Inside are food, water (paper towels keep them cleaner from wood shavings), thermometer, a shade tent, and some greens and bugs to peck at.

This is Cluck.

 

Arrow

Fluffball

and Crow (or Peck--Syd can't decide which name she likes better)

   Syd loves the babies very much, obviously (as do I!), but this is the girl whom I really wanted to get chickens for:

My girl who keeps to herself, my girl who would rather read than play, my girl for whom comfort in her own skin and in the world at large is something that she has to work at, she has an affinity for animals. She's comfortable with them--


--she's feels free to be herself with them--

 --and they help her be kind and compassionate, to get out of her own head, and to connect:

Our babies are growing SO fast. I no longer wake up in the middle of the night to check that they're warm enough (Yes, I did that!), and they're just hitting the size that says to our three cats, combined with our body language, that these are not prey animals for them. Hopefully this weekend we'll build them their backyard coop, and let them start taking little day trips out there next week.

Because as much as I love love LOVE these babies, I'll also be pretty excited to have a hallway that does not contain a big chick brooder.