Before I begin this week’s blog post, I want to say a special thank you to my faithful readers, especially my email and WordPress subscribers. Thank you for your time each week and your encouraging comments. I appreciate you all.
This week, I would like to give you an update on our new baby chicks. So, as I mentioned last week, we started our chicken adventure with 6 fuzzy and featherless chicks. That number did not last long. We bought 3 more chickens the next day, which gave us a grand total of 9 adorable chicks.
The first couple of days went smoothly. We settled the chickens into their new home, an empty aquarium. Then, we set up a heat lamp above them, since chicks have to stay in a 90-95 degree environment while they are young. They quickly figured out where their food and water dispensers were located, and reluctantly tolerated our occasional need to pick them up. They seemed like happy chicks.
Then, tragedy struck. On day 3, the smallest black chick wasn’t as lively and didn’t want to eat. It was cuddled up in the corner, and the other chicks were walking over it. I moved the chick into another box and got it to drink a little water. It wouldn’t open its eyes, and it was taking shallow breaths. We knew something was wrong. My husband and I watched helplessly as the poor chick struggled to move. Less than an hour later, we watched it died.
About thirty minutes after the chicken died, someone accidentally dropped the aquarium while cleaning it out. The floor was covered in glass. We cleaned up the mess, and then we transferred the chicks, bedding, food, and water into a plastic bin. This lodging switch presented a whole new problem; you can’t put a heat lamp onto the side of a plastic bin. So, we spent another half hour dealing with that issue. Needless to say, the remaining 8 chicks were a little nervous after all of the commotion. It was not a good evening.
Day 4 was better. After we disposed of our deceased chick, we explained the sad “death of a chicken” tale to our children. They seemed to take it well. We started getting into a routine for cleaning their bedding, restocking their supplies, and checking them for health issues. Thankfully, there were no more dead chicks.
Days 5 through 7 were fairly drama free.
I am happy to report that our fuzzy chicks now have feathers on their wings. For chicks, feathers are a big deal. Since they don’t have a mamma chicken to keep them warm, they can’t transition outdoors until they are much larger and mostly, if not completely, covered in feathers.
In addition, we have noticed a few chicks are getting a bit more daring. The largest chick keeps trying to fly away, when we take it out to clean the bedding, and likes to curiously stretches its neck toward the bin’s opening. We think it’s plotting a jailbreak.
We are really excited to see our chicks growing stronger and remaining healthy.
I hope you enjoyed my chick update. See you next week!
Are you going to keep them when they’re grown?
Love following your chicks progress. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Look forward to seeing them grow.