Chicken Chatter: Our baby chicks

I decided that a small flock of chickens would be a productive and beneficial addition to our vegetable garden.  If you are interested in raising chickens for the first time, I strongly recommend checking out backyardchickens.com.  I spent a ton of time on their site before we decided to get the chicks, and I feel like they helped me immensely.

My husband and I spent 2 weeks constructing a chicken coop before we picked up our chicks at the local feed store.  Every spring, our local feed stores and farm and garden supply stores get shipments of baby chicks for their customers to purchase.  It's a good way to get just a few chicks (if you order by mail, there is a minimum number of chicks you can purchase).  Call the store ahead of time to find out what breeds they have available.

We originally wanted to get 4 chickens--2 jersey black giants and 2 buff orpingtons. But they also had salmon faverolles when we got there, so we decided to get one of those too!  I strongly discourage 'impulse' chicken buying, but we ended up loving our little salmon faverolle.  So here is our little flock of 5, in their brooder (a cardboard box).

Baby Jersey Giants, Buff Orpingtons, and Salmon Favorelle.

We loved them!  They were much more active than I would have expected for chicks that are only a few days old.  We checked on them very frequently and gave them attention.  Baby chicks are delicate and need to be checked on multiple times a day.

They weren't scared of us at all and let us pet them and pick them up.  I was particularly fond of the salmon favorelle, who is very energetic and fun to watch.  She's the yellow chick at the top of the above picture.  The two black ones are the jersey black giants and the two buff ones are the buff orpingtons. 

  Stay tuned! Our chickens (now adults) will be introduced soon!