Chick pics

Our chicks are in that scruffy age.  They are growing quickly.  Hopefully today will be their first day with the rest of the flock, the first day they get to venture out in the chicken flock.  We'll see if it gets a little warmer outside first.

Here's mama hen Charlotte.  She is the best mother hen we've ever had.

It appears as if 2 of the silver laced wyandottes are actually gold laced wyandottes.  I think we have 1 silver laced wyandotte.  The red sex links are the scruffiest looking of all the chicks. The white leghorns are pretty and white already.  The gold laced wyandottes are the friendliest of all the chicks, although none of them are shy around us.

All the chicks are healthy - we lost none.  These were store-bought chicks and they were started on medicated chick feed.  We were concerned about the hen Charlotte because she was only broody a few days before we gave her chicks, and it was as if she wanted to still be broody at first. She still had the desire to sit on eggs.  But after a few days the active chicks got her up and running around like a normal mother hen. 

I wondered if the store-bought chicks, who had never seen a hen, would accept a mother hen.  The answer was - without hesitation they went right to her.  It must have been born into them to want a mother hen.  They went right under her wings and snuggled with her just like it was natural to them.  They refused to leave her side.  One wanted to ride around on her back at all times.  It was a normal thing for a baby to want a mother.

This will probably be Charlotte's last time to be a mother hen.  She is an old gal now, we are surprised but happy she went broody this spring.  She was one of our original chicks.

Tomorrow I'll make a guinea post.  Stay tuned to hear about the guinea fowl songs!