Cute Chicks

These are pictures of our new chicks.  They are bantam blue silkies and they are adorable.  Even though we only have room for 3 we had to get 5 because they are too little to tell which are hens and which are roosters.  I guess now the boys should be motivated to get that chicken coop finished once and for all.  We ordered them thinking they wouldn't be here for a few weeks.  It only took a week for them to come in.  They are not the best laying hens but because we are doing it for the experience rather than self sustainment we decided to forgo practicality with cuteness.  They are really pretty chickens when they are adults.

Peep, peep, peep

Peep

Peep, peep.

Peepity peep

Peep peeper peep peeper peepen

Even Captain thinks they are cute.  He is probably a little too interested in them but we're trying to get him used to them and train him to leave them alone.  I am more concerned about the foxes and raccoons that roam around our yard at night than I am about Captain.  Hopefully he won't prove me wrong on that.

PEEP, PEEP, PEEP, PEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!

The first day we got them we had to leave for several hours.  We put Captain outside so that we didn't come home to the appearance of a pillow fight at a slumber party.  I had turned off the A/C so I figured the 80 degrees our house was at would keep them warm enough.  We filled a small lid with water so they could get drinks if they were thirsty.  When we came home we realized our huge mistake which was equal to putting a wading pool in a room full of babies.  They were all completely soaked and shivering having gone for several swims in their drinking water.  Bryton rushed them up to his room to get the heat lamp on them.  They all huddled under the lamp and reached their little necks as far to the light as they could get them.  I picked one of them up and turned it over so that its belly could warm up and it immediately fell asleep.  My kids kept telling me I was killing it and that I wasn't supposed to hold them upside down.  

A.  It wasn't upside down. 

B. Where they got this knowledge (unfounded) I'll never know but suddenly they are experts in all things chicken.

If I were a chick with a wet belly I would want someone to do that to me but I eventually relented to their admonitions and put it down.  It didn't take them long to warm up but they were not nearly as cute as they had been when we got them home.  Wet chicks are just not attractive.  Fortunately by the next day they were back to their cute selves.  Fresh eggs should be here by Christmas.  Maybe instead of our annual hand dipped pretzels our neighbors will be receiving eggs this year.