Peeps at 3 weeks

The chicks are getting so big! This is partly because they really are growing and partly because their real feathers are growing in which makes them look huge. 

Ten quickly growing chicks need a lot of space. This is version 3.0 of the brooder set up. The food and water are now elevated to keep out the wood chips that the chicks fling everywhere while scratching for imaginary bugs. With the cool, wet weather they didn't get to scratch for real bugs quite as much this week. 

We heard panicked peeping one afternoon and found that Cheep had picked up a small piece of a cardboard and couldn't get it out of his mouth. All the other chickens ran around in panic too. I guess that is just what chickens do. 

We thought the purple cardboard under their food was perfect since it was easy for them to grip and kept their bed box clean. Since it was one big piece they couldn't pick it up. We didn't anticipate that they would rip off pieces and eat it! We are trying to satisfy their desire to experiment with new foods by offering carrot peels, occasional worms, and grit, which is basically sand or small rocks that help with digestion. 

The chicks are getting more vocal and faster when you try to catch them, but once you are holding them they are generally content to hang out. If they get tired of playing most will head straight back to the brooder. 

Brooder 2.0 is a good place to hang out with a bunch of chicks. The chicks can't escape and the dogs can't come in either. 

All of the chicks spend a lot of time on their perches now, but they still sleep in a pile on the ground. Stripe is experimenting with a roosting nap. 

Chin, Black Beauty and Cheep are getting very hard to tell apart. 

Cap almost always comes flying over when you open the door to the brooder. He is happy to hang out or take himself on a run around the room. There has been a lot of indoor chicken chasing thanks to this guy. 

Ducky is the chicken of the chickens. When we set up the new brooder we didn't move the birds in, we just left both doors open and let them move in themselves. Cap was first of course. Eight others soon followed and Ducky was left alone in the old brooder cheeping, "Where are is my flock?" Eventually Ducky joined the rest of the crew. 

The chicks are getting harder to photograph. They try to eat their name signs, or fly away. They get more silly everyday.