Well, the rest of the breeds of chickens that we wanted finally came in at the store, so we picked up 4 new baby chicks today. It’s amazing how much larger Porkchop and the gang are than these little guys. I’d almost forgotten how cute the baby chicks are.
This crop is a pair of Black Australorp (Aw-Straw-Lorp) chicks, which are supposed to be all black with a red comb when they grow up, but which have a white blaze on their chests at the moment; and one each of Rhode Island Red and Buckeye, which are similar breeds, but apparently the RI Reds can be a little aggressive, so Kristi wanted to try out the other breed. She hasn’t told me which is which, so I’ll be able to determine whether the RI Red is mean or not on my own.
The total squad of chickens is up to 8 now; a lot of the moveable coop ideas are kind of going out the window, and we’re looking for a permanent shelter that’s going to be big enough to hold our troop.
The older quartet are big enough that they’re roosting on the edge of the box quite a bit; once in awhile we’ll come up in the morning to find Carlos outside the box, peeping frantically as she tries to get back into the safety of the coop. In short, it’s time to move them out to the shop where they’ll live for 6 weeks or so until they’re big enough to be cooped outside.
So, the chicken situation is a little more complex now, but we should be up to our ears in eggs come winter.
I’m holding out hope that Porkchop does not turn out to be a rooster.