Chicks!

We have decided to do the farm thing, even though we live in town. In our town you can have as many chickens as you want {as long as there are no neighbor complains} but NO roosters. Not that I would want a rooster.... no thank you. We have been talking about getting chickens for a long time, we go through about 3 dozen eggs a week and we like to buy organic, so that gets expensive {for eggs anyways}. I have been trying to get us more and more self sustainable, with gardening, and learning how to preserve our own food. So we decided to take the next step. There is only so much we can do being as we still live in town and don't have a whole lot of property. I've already pushed the envelope on this one, turning our whole front yard into a garden, and I will be planting seeds up there this spring, so we will see how that goes. My husband is building the chicken coop behind our house, outside of the play yard. So they will be hidden away. My only concern is that they do get a little stinky, and their coop is going to be right by the walkway into the play yard, so that might not be very pleasant in the summer. But we will have fresh eggs... so I will focus on that.

{I told the kids they could name them... so their names are Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Catch-A (Catcha), Tiger, By-The (Bytha), and Toe. Ha, ha! That's what I get for telling the kids they could choose the names. I feel sorry for Toe...}

They are soooooooo cute! We are enjoying every minute of their cuteness, as they grow fast and it won't last long. We were going to get four, then six, and some how ended up with eight. Four Araucanas and four Black Sex-Links. {Yes that is there real name... but I've also seen them referred to as Black Stars and I will be calling them that from here on out.} I have to tell you when I googled the Black Sex-Links for more information I was a little nervous. They are suppose to be really great egg layers, so that's awesome. The Araucanas lay "Easter eggs" all different colors, which is why I ended up getting four of those as well. We were going to just get the Black stars, but after talking to the lady about the Araucanas I just had to have some.

The kids were so excited! Especially Atty as he has been really into birds of all kinds for a while now. They just can't get enough of these little fluff balls.

Baby sister reminding everyone to be quiet... ha ha!

Getting a chance to hold the little ladies. The boys were so gentle.

Atty was so extremely gentle and sweet that his fell asleep in his hands.

Lala wants to hold one so bad, but she's just too little to fully understand how gentle she needs to be. It's hard because she can see her brothers holding them and it drives her to tears that she can't. It's a little scary getting the chicks out around her because she tries to grab them and she pokes at them in here excitement. She calls them her babies, and just wants to squeeze 'em. I can't hardly blame her, the fluffy little chicks really do look squeezable. :)

Chicks in a basket, how adorable is that!

See Lala's hand sneaking in there? I'm telling you she is determined to get her hands on one!

It's just to much for my little lady, she wants to snuggle them up. How could mommy tell her no, no?

We are in love with these little babies. We want to get them use to us, with out scaring them, so that they will be friendlier when they are all grown up. We can't have them out for long right now though because they have to stay warm in their box so that they don't get sick. It's a little nerve racking taking care of these little ones, I don't want to lose one and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right. So far it's gone well, except I can't seem to get the box to stay the perfect temperature, it's either a tiny bit to warm or a tiny bit on the cool side. But they are staying active and seem healthy. It's actually fun to watch them running around and interacting. I'm afraid you all might be in for some more chicken post, as we are super excited about them!