Baby Chicks At 24 Days Old!

You Lookin' At Me?

The chicks are growing so fast!  Every couple days it seems that they have just exploded another inch.  They are coming into the stage when their feathers are growing in, and they look rather ragged and prickly as their fuzzy down gives way to feathers.  This chick is one of the more advanced ones with her pretty red colors beginning to show.

Babies at the big girl feeder!

Here are a couple others where you can see the different stages of

Baby Chicks At Two Weeks Old!

Growing fast they are!  Red Star babies are doing well, and sprouting their wings as we speak.  Here is the latest video I took today.

The chicken coop has been cleaned and prepared for the babies.  The three-year old hens have been moved over to the back side of the coop, and Bill and Jim put up a barrier on the bottom of the chicken wire divider wall to make certain the babies can't get stuck in the fencing.  All that is left to do is move the heat lamp out there, they will have much more room to flutter and practice their flying skills.  We will wait as long as possible before moving them.  I feel better as long as I can check up on them as often as I like while they're in the house.  But, they are starting to manufacture a whole bunch of feather dander already!  So, it won't be long now.

Raising New Baby Chicks!

Twenty-five on these on the farm!

It's always exciting to get new babies here on the farm!  Here is a picture of the brooder all set up and waiting for the chicks.  We used a 3 foot kiddie pool placed on a large square of cardboard for added warmth, wrapped it all around with 18" high brown construction paper.  My husband had some paint sticks around and used them to help hold up the paper.  We lined the pool with newspaper, attached the heat lamp to a wooden ladder-back chair, and placed the feeder, waterer, and thermometer inside.  The red heat lamp makes it a bit difficult for the camera to take a great picture.

The brooder ready to go!

Today twenty-five brand new baby chicks came home to live on the homestead.  We purchased Red Star pullets.  According to Murray McMurray Hatchery, these are the very best extra large dark brown egg layers they offer.  We will see how they do for us.  

Here they are, settling in their new home.  Oh my goodness, they are so stinkin' cute!

Little fuzzy balls of cuteness!

According to the hatchery's instructions, we added 3 tablespoons of sugar to their