They're Here

After many months of talking, planning, discussing and building, the baby chicks have finally arrived. After much debate we decided on three chickens, two silver laced wyandottes and one brahma chicken (with fluffy legs!).

We talked a lot about what we were going to name the chicks. I got to name the Brahma - Tofu seemed like an appropriate moniker. Georgia went back in forth between Fluffy and Tiny and Brad wanted to name one Peck. As an aside, I bought a chicken finger puppet a number of years ago which I love quite a lot and we named it Peck so the new chick really has some big boots to fill. Since we only got three, Georgia was willing to let her names go so Peck it is.

Lucy can be thanked for coming up with the best chicken name in history. Ready? Clementine Hazel Sabina Maple Fraser. Yes. It's a mouthful but I can't really think of a better name for a pet chicken.

The chicks are currently living in a diaper box that has been modified so it is circular in shape rather than rectangular. Apparently chicks will gravitate to the corner of a box and get stuck so it's important to keep them in a cornerless home. The box is filled with some nice wood shavings and they have lots of food to peck at and fresh water. We have a heat lamp on all the time as it's very important to keep them very warm. We were told that the air should be approximately 30 degrees at all times until they get big enough to keep their bodies warm (probably when they loose their fluff and their feathers come in). The girls will move outside into their chicken condo when they're a bit bigger, probably in a few weeks.

The chicks hatched Saturday February 12th, they were 3 days old in the pictures below. Tofu and Peck are proving to be strong, healthy little things. In fact Tofu seems to be a bit of a bully, pecking and pushing the other two out of the way. Both Peck and Tofu eat a lot and drink lots of water. Have you ever seen a baby chick drink water? It's pretty funny. They stick their little beak in the water and then tip their head way up in the air to let the water drip down into their throats (do chickens have throats?? So much to learn!). The funny thing is that they look like their stretching their little necks up so they can look at us, it's all very cute. Now, CHSMF isn't doing as well. She's just sitting around with her eyes shut and isn't nearly as active as the other two. Lucy is certainly giving her lots of love and she and Brad have even started to spoon feed her chicken gruel. We'll see how she does over night. Keep your fingers crossed.

Peck in the foreground,Clementine Hazel Sabina
Maple Fraser in the back

 

Tofu (don't mess with her)

Tofu (front) and CHSHF