Chicks!!! Part 2.

The chicks are growing far faster than I would have imagined.  I think they are doubling in size weekly right now.  They have already been through 20 pounds of food in just three weeks, which seems an awful lot for the teeny down puffs they were when we brought them home.  Of course they are messy eaters and many kernels are lost to the duff.  Flight feathers are not only growing in, they are operable.  We have been forced to find a way to lower the ceiling on their sorties in a big hurry.

Each breed has already separated itself from a personality standpoint.  Is it nature or nurture?  The buff Orpingtons seem to be the most observant, curious, and friendly.  Our barred rocks are goofy and a bit skittish.  The Wynadottes, which are Emily's favorite, are mellow, friendly, and especially determined to keep chunks of nightcrawlers away from their brooder mates.  Finally, our Araucanas are still an enigma.  We named one of them "Psycho-Chicken," due to its immediate and  incessant proclivity to peck at the walls of the brooder, dig through the litter to the cardboard below, and run circles around the other chicks.  On the other end of the Araucana spectrum, we have our most mellow, laziest, and "prettiest" bird (though it is very hard to use the word pretty to describe chicks pushing a month old).

We have already reaped some benefits, besides entertainment from our flock.  We are working their poo-laden pine shaving litter into our lasagna garden beds for an extra kick of nutrients.  Waste not, want not.  We may reap benefits from the meat of one of our birds much earlier than expected.  Seems we might have a little cockerel on our hands.  An extra tall and spiky comb on our smallest barred rock... hmm.  I don't think we'll go for roosters at this point.  We don't have much desire to raise the ire of any neighbor.