Vid of the chicks

Here is a little video of the baby chicks...



And soon, we are going to have a new member to our our flock of hens!.... More later :)

baby chicks are here!

These cute little fluffies won't stay this way for long...

Soon they will be big, fat, white birds ready to put on the table!

There are 6 chicks, but some of them were under the electric hen (the heater to keep them warm).  And the adventurous one on top of the electric hen - he jumped up there himself!!!

video of play times

Here are two (lengthy) videos of the two youngest boys playing.  At first they were a bit mesmerised by the camera, but soon went back to playing.  Junior is trying hard to be just like Little Man and do his cartwheels, forward rolls, and headstands. 

The Children

I have heard some rumours that there have not been enough pics of the children lately... so here are some pics from today while they were working on their school work.

Of course Junior wanted to be in every picture! LOL

What next??

Well, we've had about 16 or so eggs over the last 2 weeks.  Not bad from just 2 of our hens.  They are still young yet and just getting into the swing of things.  Looking forward to the other girls coming into lay!  Those eggs were scrummy! :D

But now that we have gotten settled with the hens, we started thinking - what else, what next?  We've got a good little set up with our laying hens (once they start laying! LOL).... so that's breakfast sorted - but what about dinner??

So.... Big Mr built this:

It's a brooding box!  the big black square is the "Electric Hen" which radiates heat down below and the chicks hide under it for warmth, as they would a mother hen.  There is cardboard around the edges to prevent the chicks from huddling in a corner and accidently smothering one another.  There is room at the other end for the feeder and drinker.  I also have a wire mesh grating for the lid, to prevent them from jumping out.

We've decided to order day-old "table birds"!  They arrive next Friday.... and should be ready for the table ;) in about 3 months time.

Fun fun fun!

Our first Egg!!!

One of our Maran hens laid an egg today!!! I don't know which one, but I suspect the Wheaten hen.

More chickens!

We got a couple more chickens today - 1 Wheaten Marans and 1 Cuckoo Marans - the cuckoo is the black speckled one.

 

  

Aren't they gorgeous???

And here is one from our first set... she is SO curious about everything.

 

Here is a pic of our coop and run all put together.  Once they settle in, they will be allowed to roam in the garden as well.