Baby Chicks are here!

we went to the feed store yesterday and picked out 24 baby chickens.  the dealio is - 8 free chicks if you buy a sack of feed.  it used to be you got 10 chicks per sack - but - well, you know.  6 rhode island reds, 6 bard rocks and 12 aracanas.

boyd made them a little cage and a heater lamp with a waterer and feeder.  they seem happy - and so far, none have died.  that's the thing with chickens - our experience has been that they don't all live.  yeah.  so - i told boyd that the chickens were his thing.  i will do the dogs, cat and llama - he does the chickens.  he's cool with that.  he loves the way they imprint on him and he trains them to do little things.  he likes it.  he says he is going to be more proactive in protecting them from the coyotes, hawks and rats this time around.

before we went, boyd looked on the internet to see how to sex a chick.  we want only 2 or 3 roosters.  when you choose blindly you end up with about 1/3 roosters.  so we tried to decipher who was what sex - at first by looking at their bums - but that was inconclusive to our untrained eyes.  so then we tried the leg hang method.  supposedly when you pick the chick up - the rooster pulls his legs up and the hen lets the legs dangle.  i also employed my hang your hand in the cage method.  the ones that attack your hand are roosters.  it will be interesting to see how well we did in our choosing.  i hope they are not all roosters.  most roosters turn into chicken dinner.  we will keep some roosters because they are great protectors of the flock.  it is awesome to watch him warn everyone of an approaching hawk or other danger.  he is a violent mate however - I don't care for that part.  the hens loose their feathers on their necks.  ick.  but, we do want to have more babies - so i guess i will have to deal with it.

smokey and the dogs are curious about the odor and noise from the caged area.  smokey is actually more than just curious.  age has not affected her appetite that much.