A Fowl Love Story

To quote one of my favorite Christmas movies (Elf), "I'm in love.  I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!".  Seriously.  Is there a term for Chicken adoration?

Right after our coop was done, my girlfriend calls.  She just bought 13 8-week old Silkies at a sale barn and her more mature chickens didn't like them and she was down to 11 because her goat dog killed two (within 24 hours).  She asked if we could take them.  We didn't have any chickens yet so we definitely had the room, but Silkies?  She assured me they were baby chick friendly, very motherly and wouldn't harm any chicks we decide to get.  I wasn't even sure if I liked them.  I mean, don't they just get dirty with all their fancy feet? 

To put it mildly, they've grown on me.  Now I'm hoping she leaves us a few when they're grown and I hope little Nutmeg is one of them.  Isn't she cute?

Not long after she brought over the Silkies, we went to a local flea market/sale barn and picked up some babies - like 3 days old.  We got 5 Buff Orpington, 4 Barred Rock and 4 Rhode Island Red.  The Reds we know are pullets (or at least that's what the guy told us), the other 9 are a mix.  We won't know how many boys are in there for a while yet.  We were lucky enough to find one of those little canning jar feeders at the sale barn too so we bought a canning jar waterer and they were set. 

Remember the nesting boxes in the front of our coop?  Well, Hubz had a great idea for a little nursery.  He took down the divider between two of the larger boxes to make a big rectangle.  He then tacked up some hardware cloth to keep them contained.  We thought this was really good because the bigger chickens could see them, smell them, hear them, but couldn't get to them.  They were safe within their little nursery. 

Those little buggers grow!  Within a few days they were showing signs of real feathers instead of baby chick fluff and getting bigger by the hour.  A couple days ago we decided it was time to give them more room.  We didn't want to totally tear down the nursery, but wanted to give them the opportunity to roam if they wanted.  Hubz cut a little door in the hardware cloth so they could roam when they wanted to roam and return home if they got scared or hungry.  So far it's working really well.  Here's a little video of the buggers when we gave them an exit. 

Aside from the occasional peck from a bigger chicken (usually the ones we suspect are roosters), they've been getting along well.  The Silkies will even let the babies eat from their feeder.  It's been a joy watching them explore their new space and spread their wings, literally.