A Visit To See My Chicks

My coop isn't quite ready yet, but I've been visiting my chickens and just had to share some pictures of them.  The mama is a beautiful Buff Orpington.  She is a surrogate mama to 6 chicks.  My neighbor put some eggs under her to raise, and she's done a bang up job!  While we were watching her when the chicks were very little, she would take some feed in her beak, and then drop it on the ground for the chicks to eat.  

My neighbor calls her Grouchy, but I have yet to have her be even the slightest bit aggressive to me.  I think she was just being protective of the chicks.

This little chick kept flying up to get in the top of the feeder.  He/she (not sure yet) was so cute!

I wish I had thought to take some pictures when the chicks were tiny.  They were so cute.  Now they are still cute, but in that slightly awkward teenage chick stage.  It's fun to watch them explore.  I took a little grass to them and they were so excited to see something green!  Right now they are in a separate little section of her coop, safe from the other chickens.  Her coop is really a room in her barn.

The chick on the left in the picture below looks a little tipsy.  They are so hilarious to watch.   

In addition to that brood, I am getting a couple of these Black Australorp hens.  They are just starting to lay.  While collecting eggs last week, while my neighbor was on vacation, I found 1 or 2 pullet eggs each day.  I don't know who is laying yet, but it won't be long before they are in full egg production. These are beautiful chickens, especially the roosters.  I didn't get a picture of him, but he is beautiful!

I'm going to try to get the roost and nesting boxes built today.  I'm also thinking of white washing the inside to make it brighter inside.  We've been working of the fencing for the run.  The poles are in the ground.  They'll be cut off once we get the fence attached .  The pile behind the run is sections of an old fence we were given.  That will disappear soon.

So far I've only spent $16 for the whole shabang for a can of paint.  We were given, or we had everything else, including fencing.  What a blessing!  I'm off to get to work.  The chicks are waiting.