Chickens in the Sunlight

We've been transitioning the chickens from the brooder box to their coop.  Over the past few weekends we've been taking the girls outside for a little fresh air. As you'd guess, they really enjoy time spent in the yard. Here are a few pictures:
 

River

 

 

Snacking

Inara

Zoe

A walk outside

It's getting a little crowded in the brooder. I made some improvements to help a bit. I switched to a hanging waterer. It was time to raise the feeder up, so I put it on a stack of bricks. We had some spare lumber laying around so I hacked together a roosting bar.

 
It's been a cold March so far. We even had our first snow day last week. Too cold for our partially-feathered gals to move outside. However, on Saturday we had some nice Pacific Northwest sun breaks. 

Zoe and Kaylee are nearly 6 weeks old. We figured that it is time they got to scratch outside on the lawn. We gave them an hour to peck around. They seemed to enjoy it. Both pullets got quite puffed up in the 45 °F weather. After the initial feather fluffing, they relaxed enough to sample the grass and dandelion leaves.

River and Inara stayed inside. They probably also enjoyed the time to stretch out.

After Kaylee and Zoe returned to the brooder, they spent some quality time under the heat lamp.

Anyway, I think they had fun.

Growing!

I'm really stunned by how quickly chicks grow. You can see changes over the course of a day. Some of the changes that are happening right now: new feathers are coming in with more established patterns, combs are appearing, they are getting taller and plumper. We now have three five-week-old chickens and one two-week-old. We made them sit for portraits today.

Zoe at five weeks: She is more interested in people than the others. She has yet to get tired of sitting on a lap. Her comb and waddle are coming in nicely and getting a little pink.

Kaylee at five weeks: She is the most chickeny of the group. Her feathers are surprisingly soft and fluffy. She already has an impressive strut.

 

River at five weeks: She seems the most bird-like to me. True to her breed, she makes a soft coo sound that is quite sweet. The pattern emerging in her feathers is lovely.  I can't wait to see what she will look like full grown. 

Inara at two weeks: For being the youngest she is quite brave. When we give them a treat of hard-boiled egg or meal worms she is the first to the dish. You can see here that her tail feathers have just sprouted. Cute.

And 2 More Makes 4

We picked up our second batch of two chicks yesterday. We had pre-ordered all of our chickens, but because of extenuating circumstances, the Wyandotte and Speckled Sussex weren't available. Luckily they had many lovely breeds on hand for us to choose from. We had no trouble picking out two sweet chicks that I am very happy to add to our flock.

At the chicken store

River is our Easter Egger. They are known for their fluffy beards, pea combs and colorful eggs. River's eggs could be blue, green, pink, white or brown. All of her eggs will be the same color. We won't know what her hue will be until she lays her first egg (fingers crossed for blue). She is quite sweet and loves to make herself a little bed by rearranging the pine shavings in the brooder box. 

River

Inara is the youngest at about four days old. She is a Black Copper Marans. Her eggs will be a dark "chocolate brown" color. She is so tiny and cute! We were concerned that the older chicks might pick on or inadvertently trample her. She seems to be holding her own and River has become her protector. 

Inara (with a shout out to Populuxe Brewing in the background)

I'm sure that our nerdier readers have deduced that we've named the chicks after characters from the show Firefly. Our coop came with the name "Firefly" and we couldn't resist the TV show tie-in.

The girls are getting to know each other and seem to be adjusting well to the new living arrangement. They were all a little stressed yesterday, but that is to be expected. I'm looking forward to seeing where each will fall in the pecking-order. I have a guess as to who will be "top hen", but that remains to be seen. It is almost impossible to get a photo of the four of them that isn't a total blur. Here is my most successful attempt:

Under the warming light: Kaylee, Zoe, River and Inara!