The Chicks Arrived!

I got the call from the post office this morning that the chicks have arrived.  The sound of that many chicks peeping all at once was almost deafening!

I opened the box and how cute is that!?!

I dip the beak of each chick into the water and they very quickly figured out on their own how to drink and they were very, very thirsty!  They tilt their heads back like that when they take a drink. 

 This is their new home.  The red light is a heat lamp that keeps them warm and I've found that a kiddy pool - with no corners - keeps them from piling up on, and suffocating, each other.  They'll be in this one pool for a few days, but they'll grow fast and I'll very quickly be splitting them up between two pools.

It didn't take long for them to find their food!

Although the chicks had a nice warm spot under the lamp, a lot of them chose to bask in the warm sunlight coming in through the window. 

And because they're babies, and had a long and difficult journey, they soon began to fall asleep.

Now, I'm pleased to introduce a new "Pants On The Ground" baby.  When our beloved "Pants On The Ground" rooster was killed by a hawk (see here) I decided to add two roosters of his breed - Standard Partridge Cochins - to my order.  See the feathers on his legs?

This little guy has some big... umm... Pants to fill!

Be sure to drop over to the Homestead Barnhop at Homestead Revival.  Go to the bottom of the post and there are lots of great links to other people's blogs!

Goodbye to Pants On The Ground

Yesterday, the hawk got poor Pants On The Ground.  I walked back to the chicken coop and saw the red-tailed hawk fly up and away from the ground.  That's very bad and sure enough I found the remains of our top dog rooster.  We've had a long line of roosters and he was the best!

Our white leghorn rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, seems to have learned manners from Pants On The Ground, so hopefully he'll be just as pleasant.  

A Perfect Gentleman?

Each morning, "Pants On The Ground" is usually the most perfectly refined gentleman and allows all of his ladies (and the gentlemen too) to come out of the coop before him.

Today, he must have been confused and ran out before one of his ladies.  When he realized his error he stopped, turned around to look at her in horror, and then waited for her to come out.

I'd like to think that he displays this enormously polite behavior due to a degree of urbane sophistication and that it's not just simple self-preservation!