Cluck You!

Yup. You are reading that right.

Our chickens have arrived! 

And, they are tiny.

It was Nolan's birthday yesterday {look for a seperate post on that to come later today}, so I was glad they made their appearance as an extra special present to him.

He simply adores them. And Nev does too, just from a greater distance.

He helped get their food ready by pouring the entire bag of pellets into their feeder.

Helped spread the pine shavings on the cardboard bottom of their bin as a fluffy bedding.

And he picked each one up out of the tiny packing box {instinctively} into their temporary home in the basement. At first he was dropping them in from about a foot off the ground, but then became more gentle as he got all 29 of them out. 

Then we {all three of us} just sat there for like an hour 35 minutes just watching them. They naturally dipped their beaks into the water and started pecking the bottom of the bin to look for their food.

It was pretty amazing.

They will have to stay inside for about a week and a half because

1} we don't have their chicken house out in the backyard yet because it has been so wet from all the rain.

and 2} because temperatures are still too cold to have them be outdoors.

So they are in the basement.

And it kind of smells like a used barn down there already. Day 1.

Can't imagine in 7-10 more days what the upstairs might begin to reek of. {yuck}

But if it makes for some tame, healthy pullets and cockerels {baby hens and roosters}, then who cares!

It will air out. Because they aren't loosely running around down there. They are contained.

Will update as they grow with us.
Because I am sure we will have many stories like last night.
 After we came home from Chuck E Cheese we found Nolan had crept down the stairs and was holding a "black one" {his favorite ones} and giving it kisses on it's head. Then he plopped him back in the bin and got another one. Gave it kisses too. Then he would just put it back.
Then he would scoop up a bit of their food and sprinkle it gently into a pile on the side of their bin.
He didn't know I was watching until I softly asked him from the doorway what he was doing.
"Taking care of the chicky's." he said.
He also said he wanted them all to sleep in his bed!

Cracked me up.
And warmed my heart.

I think we will have very tentative caretakers of the chickens. No doubt.


Until next time...