Journey to the Hen House

We have started a new journey with a few little fluff balls. They are getting so big so fast. I wanted to post our progress as we hope to have them ALL out to the "hen" house, soon. Although, my son is convinced there is at least one rooster in the bunch. But, I think it's just because he would like to have another boy around the house.

We brought home ten, "day-old" chicks yesterday.

We started them all in a box, in the greenhouse room.

We were told we got 3 buff orpingtons, 4 rhode island
reds & 3 plymouth rock. What do you think?

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About 10 days later.....

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They grew too big for that box and I was worried they would actually
fly out, since they were doing a lot of "fly-jumping" and almost hitting the lamp.

So they moved into a water tank, which was much more roomy.

And the greenhouse room stayed very warm, so we switched to a regular
light bulb too, so we did not have baked chicks.

We also introduced them to their new poop-less watering system.

It took them awhile to figure it out.
The black one we call Stretch was the first to investigate.
And soon the others were trying their luck at the new contraption.

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Three weeks old now.....

They are loosing all the baby fluff and definitely gaining their own personalities.

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They are now 4 weeks old.  I turned off their heat light yesterday, as the weather has started to get warmer.  We decided to take them outside today, since the temperature reached 69 degrees....

We took them out 3 at a time, but I only got shots of the black ones in the grass.

They were not happy campers.  In fact, they acted just like my kiddos did the first time they were introduced to grass.  A bit hesitant of the foreign substance....LOL! They much preferred the sidewalk or my lap.

A few times they even attempted to fly up to my head...weird.

I felt like a mother hen...as they did not stray too far away, which was good, since I thought I would be chasing chickens all around the yard once I let them out.

I plan on taking them outside each day for about a week or so before they move into their outdoor coop.  I can not believe how big they got in only a month's time.   

One finally ventured over to my son's lap for a quick peek, before we headed back inside.

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The next day we picked up a puppy pen.
They did much better and started hunted around the ground for goodies.

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5 weeks already??

Yep, and one of the barred rocks is getting lighter each day.  I am beginning to think that our 10 pullets have now become nine pullets and one cockerel.  

They are loving their daily romp in the grass.  But their water tank is starting to get a bit cramped.  They grow so fast!!  I trying to figure out a place to put them until their coop gets finished.

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 5 1/2 Weeks...

Still no coop yet, so we moved them into a larger stock tank and out of the greenhouse room, into the screened in porch.  We gave them some more toys to play with, but they tend to just stand by their feeder.  I started giving them cherry tomatoes as a treat and they love them!!

We still take them out to the puppy pen once a day for some scavenging.

stay tuned for more chicken chat.....