Chick, Chicks

We really want to utilize our big 7,500 sq ft city lot to be as sustainable as possible. Moving in during early spring is kind of crazy because so much happens to set up the garden season during March and April in the Pacific NW. So, I've been trying to get out every dry day (even though it has been unseasonably cool this March) and get a few beds planted.

In an effort to stay on track to have an urban farm, we went to the Urban Farm Store and bought 4 couple-days-old chicks 10 days ago. Meet the chicks through their 2-days-old-to-us pictures:

KiKi - the largest (and probably oldest) of the birds, a Delaware, and named by M.


Kameny - named after a good friend (at his request), Kameny is a bit spastic - perhaps living up to his name sake (no offense Kameny) - but also rules the still-figurative roost. I think (by process of elimination) that she is the Ameraucana and thus will lay slightly blue-green eggs.

Red is a Rhode Island Red - or at least I hope I remembered that right because she is obviously unimaginatively named. She is smaller and probably a day or two younger than KiKi and Kameny.

This is Lowery. Don't ask why - a 3-year-old's whim. I think she will be the barred Plymouth rock and she is definitely the runt. (There is a picture below with both her and KiKi for comparison.)

M "loves having chick chicks" as he tells me daily. They are very cute and growing by the minute. Kiki & Kameny have really started to feather out on their wings and tails. Here are today's (so coming up on 2 weeks old) below:






Chicks are amazingly sufficient in feeding themselves right off the bat but they do have to live under a heat lamp without a mama for the first couple of months. The girls currently occupy one of the many large moving boxes we have lying around. We will have to build a coop within a couple of months. J says he is doing it, so stay tuned!