August 4, 2019

Definitely have 2 baby chicks. The first golden one and one little black one.

We have been surprised how quickly the Mom brought the babies out of the coop. They were only a couple days old.

We learned the first day out, that even though there are bars to clutch on the ramp into the coop that are placed about the same distance as a base bar the chicks will not return to the coop themselves. Each night we have to place Stir-Fry in the coop, then quickly grab the babies and put them in with her. Stir-Fry seems to try to teach the babies to come up the ramp, she goes up and calls them, back down talks to them, then back up and calls again... the babies just wander around looking lost and don't even attempt the ramp. We have had a couple traumatic nights for the chicks and their Mom as we learned the best way to do this. We tried putting a chick up but the chick cries from the coop and Stir-fry wanders around lost and the other chick stays too close for us to grab her. I got pecked one night trying. One night we were able to show Stir-Fry that we put the chick in the coop but most nights it is easiest to wait until she settles under the coop with them, as if to sleep there for the night, then grab her and stick her in and grab the babies quickly and stick them in with her before she leaves the coop. Our two daughters are great chick catchers but neither wants to mess with the Mama. One night when we were out later our daughter recruited her brother to help. They were both a little exasperated at us when we pulled up just after they had gotten the chicks in.

 It is warm enough out we just let the chicks stay outside all day with their Mom and put their food and water out. They have shade under the coop and some wind protection there too.
I have read all about baby chicks needing a heat lamp for weeks but these babies don't spend much time under their Mom and seem fine.

The girls were eating raspberries by the coop and Kylo our rooster came over and asked for some. Funny because he has never asked for food before and doesn't even always come running like the hens when we bring scraps out. He will tell his ladies if he finds a tasty treat though. We gave him some raspberries and though he shared some, he ate more than he often will. I guess they are his favorite food?

Stir-Fry will break up and feed the raspberries to her chicks too. She makes a similar call to Kylo's that says "yummy food here, come and get it" and the chicks will come. At first she rejected the chick crumbles we were trying to feed for her babies, we put in grain for her that she is used to, but worried the chicks were not getting enough so for a couple days we gave them scrambled eggs. They have decided the crumbles are ok now and will eat them, but definitely prefer scrambled eggs and raspberries.

I tossed some bolting lettuce to the hens. The bunny in the field came to steal some from them and rammed into one of the hens and stole her lettuce. She pecked the bunny back, for a few minutes it looked like there would be a stand off until the hen backed off.