New animals at our house...

What's keeping us busy at our house this week:

Katydid's new rabbit, Zita.  She's a Blue Polish, very calm.  We got her from another family in our homeschool group.  They breed rabbits but have been trying to reduce their numbers lately, so they happily passed on this one.  They gave us the grand tour of all their chickens, ducks, turkeys, tadpoles, and rabbits on Monday, and we had a great time.  Katydid named her bunny for St. Zita, whom she looks to for help in doing her chores without distraction.
 

Another new addition to the household:

Our chicks arrived in the mail today.  I ordered 5 Dominique hens, 5 Buff Orpington hens, and 5 Gold-Laced Wyandotte hens from Meyer Hatchery.  Andy had built a brooder out of wood, but we thought it was a little big for such tiny chicks.  So we used the traditional cardboard box.  Unfortunately, we had an accident not too long after I took this picture, which resulted in two of the chicks being crushed and killed.  Needless to say, this was quite traumatic to everyone involved.  I did not plan on starting out our chicken adventure with a lesson on the uniqueness, preciousness, and irreplacibility of life.  In fact, I wish that all lessons involving nature were as beautiful as watching my roses and peonies swelling in their buds, and I am the kind of person who is likely to get up several times tonight (I'll be up several times tonight anyway) just to make sure that the remaining thirteen chicks are all right.

We did move the chicks to the wooden brooder right away, which is working much better.

I knew I started decluttering that laundry room for some reason.  (I know it doesn't look very decluttered, but -- trust me.)

Here's a close-up of the chicks:

The yellow chicks are the Buffs, the dark chicks with yellow streaks the Gold-Laced Wyandottes, and and the black chick with the white fluff is a Dominique.  The Buffs are terribly funny to watch; they periodically race back and forth across the brooder like Olympic sprinters.  (After I took this picture we added paper towels to the floor of the brooder; one book I read said just use newspaper, but another source said that newspaper is too slippery.  In another couple days we'll put down pine shavings.)

So our introduction to hobby farming has been a little rough, and I am wondering if I shouldn't become a vegetarian.  Overall, though, I think it's already been worth it to bring these little chicks into our home.  But I also wonder, do other people say Hail Marys for their chickens???

Comments

[Jennifer]

They are so cute at that stage! Hold one of the chicks on your palm and pet from under her beak down her breast. It'll hypnotize her and she'll slowly tip forward till her beak rests on your palm. She'll stay in that postion snoozing for awhile. Singing "Go to sleep - go to sleep - go to sle-e-ep, little chicky" is entirely optional!