Chicken Littles!

Well, the chicks are officially a month old!  They are growing like CRAZY! They have already lost their cute fuzziness and have started getting feathers.  They are looking a little ratty, but SHH don't tell them that! 











 
  

Peek-a-boo!

 

I think we are going to end up with 2 girls and 5 boys... which isn't what I was hoping for.  All three of the adopted chicks that I bought because I wanted DARK eggs, have turned out to be boys so I don't think I am going to be getting any dark eggs from them! I can get a couple more of the same breed from the same lady if I want to.  I am still trying to decide what do do about that!  







We did have a small problem with coccidiosis this past week, but we are treating them and everyone seems to be doing much better!  Luckily we caught it very early and we didn't lose anyone!  This is a fairly common ailment that often kills chicks if it isn't caught early!  They will finish up the medicine tomorrow, and hopefully that will be the end of that! 

I am hoping that this weekend I can finally let them out of the coop for the first time!  I hope that the weather cooperates and it is pretty!  I have to figure out some sort of pen to keep them confined so that the other chickens can't get to them and so that I can catch them easier to put them up afterwards!  I am sure Clarabelle will enjoy some time outside and a dust bath since she hasn't been out in a month!  I look forward to watching her show the babies how to forage!  She already gets so excited when I bring them grass and weeds!  Hubby had to pull up some sod where his building footers were going, so I put that in there and they LOVED it! 

Clarabelle has also started molting, so there are feathers EVERYWHERE in the coop!  With being a momma and molting it may be a couple of months before she starts laying again!  Feathers are mostly protein, so when molting the protein goes toward making new feathers rather than producing eggs.  Egg production generally slows or even stops during the molt, although adding protein to their diets can help with the feather regrowth, and helping to maintain egg production.  I am not overly concerned with her laying eggs again.  She will resume when she is ready!  Her breed tends to go broody fairly often as well, so she will probably want to raise another set of chicks in the spring!