Chickens Part Two

We've been proud chicken owners for two weeks now. We got our first six July 28th and last four 4 August. The first ones were 8 days old when we got them and second set were 2 days old. They change so fast! It's been really neat to watch them changing- both their bodies and their behaviors. It's really a lot like watching newborns change. 

The kids love to hold the birds. 

James had lots of good helpers building the coop.

Paint goes on quick with five painters!

Chicken playtime after dinner is one of our favorite times of day now!

The way to a bird's heart is through her stomach :)

How cute is that! Our fuzzy Rhode Island Reds

Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Barred Rocks cuddling together

My hard working, super building hubby!

Little chicks lay down and nap in the kids' hands

Our fine feathered friends needed a net on top to keep from flying around our house.
They love the perch James made for them. It's usually full!

We sure our enjoying our chickens and look forward to yummy eggs!

Chicks

so we've been talking about getting chickens for a while and finally decided to go for it after seeing that some families in our neighborhood have chickens and especially reading this neighbor's blog. 

So we started doing some research, visited the neighbor, and ordered a dozen chicks! We changed our minds a few times and ended up ordering getting 

2 Golden Laced Wyandottes (Eve and Mrs. Noah)

2 Silver Laced Wyandottes (Sarah and Hagar)

and 2 Brown leghorns (Pillar and 

They are so fun! They cuddle together and nap. until one wakes up and steps on the rest and then they are all up- eating, drinking, scratching, trying their hardest to get a fly if it flies by. I'm really amazed by how quickly their feathers are growing. These first chicks we got were a week old when we got them so they already had the beginnings of wings when we got them and it seems like their feathers have grown each time I look at them.  They do make quite a mess- they stand in their food and water and knock it all over. But they're super cute. 

The kids love to pet them and pick them up. we've been taking one at a time out of the box since I have these visions of chicks running everyone and us not being able to catch them all :)

James has been hard at work for four days now on our Chicken Castle. He did a great job making the plans himself and building it all- of course, he had this fine construction crew.

The kids favorite part was the painting. James enjoyed building it but probably would have liked cooler weather!