Chicks

 One of the things on our 'Things We Want to Do" list when we made the move from the suburbs to the country was to raise chickens for eggs.  My husband enjoyed having chickens when he was a child and wanted the kids to be able to experience that as well.

My daughter has been asking for chickens for the past few years, but it seemed to get bumped down to the bottom of the list.  We finally decided that now was the time!

After searching several of the local feed stores and finding that they had already sold out of their new chicks, we happened upon a very small feed store that had several breeds of 2 1/2 week old chick.  We decided to take 8 female Buff Orpingtons.

 These little things were so soft, sweet and fluffy!  We put them in an old metal wash basin in Isabel's bedroom with a heat lamp shining on them.  We had a mesh metal fire pit cover that we put on top to keep them from flying out, once they began to fly.

Every other day, Isabel put the chicks in a cardboard box while she cleaned out the nesting material in their basin.  When the weather warmed and they got bigger, we decided to put them in the grass with a circle of fencing material around them while she cleaned.  I had to sit right outside the circle and keep a close eye on them.  Sometimes they would go through the fence and needed to be put back in.  I kept a beach towel handy to drape and give them a little shade and to wave when a hungry hawk (or several) would circle above.