Chicks: The First Three Weeks

On May 1st, we picked up our 5 adorable baby chicks!  And these chicks were angry.  Super angry.  Loud angry chicks.  What did we get ourselves into?

Beep beep beep beep beep beep!

Yes, there is a heat lamp under that towel.  After awhile, they settled down and proceeded to look adorable.

Unfortunately, when we first got them it was still pretty cold outside.  So I didn't want to torture them with outdoor photos.  This is a photo of Emma taken on a towel on May 3rd.  As you can see, even on a towel she still exhibits supermodel potential.

On May 6th, I was finally able to take them all outside!  That's Abigail on the left and Emma on the right.  The others are Clementine, Beryl, and Delilah, but not necessarily in that order (does that make me a bad mother hen?).

Abigail May 6th

Clementine May 6th

 

So at about a week old, they finally got to see the outdoors.  I was worried they would all run in different directions, but they stayed right next to me the entire time.  To the point that it was difficult to get the camera far back enough to take some photos!

Look at their cute fluffy butts!  Hehe.  That's Beryl looking at the camera.  Even by a week old, you can already see them developing some feathers.  They're no longer all fluff.

 

The next time I was able to take them all outside, it was May 12th and they were nearly 2 weeks old.  We had some nice dandelions in the yard by this point, which I think add to the rest of the photos.  You can really see a lot more feathers at this point.  At between 2 and 3 weeks old, they started to fly.

 

Abigail May 12th

 

Abigail has been our smallest and Emma is the largest.  I will post a graph of their daily weights later on, once they move out to the coop where I will not be weighing them daily.  Still, you can really see a difference between Abigail and Emma.

 

Emma May 21st

Abigail May 21st

 

 Overall, this has been a fun experience so far!  We're still working on the coop.  Unfortunately, I won't have a detailed tutorial for the coop as I'm trying to just "get it done" rather than take a bunch of photos along the way.  With the photos I have taken though, it would be pretty easy for someone who is somewhat handy to put it together.  So, look forward to my next post to view the coop.  I'm sure there will be more adorable chicken photos too.