Saturday, May 7, 2011

Big News--Chicks As They Grow




The chicks have been moved from the Montessori classroom to the Charmed Life Chickens farmstead. This was due to one child being allergic to feathers and one parent being prohibited by his job from being near chickens. The last thing I wanted was for the chickens to be a burden on anyone. So they are here with me, where I will care for them and update via this blog as they grow, and they will cone back to the Montessori school once they are big enough to live outside in a coop. They'll need all their feathers before that can happen! So they'll be here a few more weeks. Here are some adorable shots of children in the classroom on the last day with the chicks.



































































































These pics show how the chicks have grown in the past two weeks. On the day the left the school, they were still cute little puffballs. They really did not have their feathers coming in yet.






Now, they are starting to lose some of the fluff and beginning to grow feathers to keep them warm. They are enjoying being outside on warm days for short periods in the sun.



Yesterday they were getting a little noisy and stinky, and I decided to put them in the big coop outside, but they still have to be kept warm, around 80 degrees day and night, so I created a safe, snug, warm portion of the coop by running electricity to their area. I also had to make sure to put up an impermeable barrier between the chicks and the adult chickens. Chicks without mothers are often pecked badly or even killed. They need extra protection while they are little!


I am sad to note that one of the chicks had a malformed beak that could not be fixed, and died yesterday.

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