Naming Chickens

Out of our six EE chicks, we are only keeping three.  The other three will be going to my parents' house.  We aren't sure which three we are going to keep, so we haven't given them names yet.  Except for this girl. I'm a Harry Potter fan, so I could not resist naming this one Hedwig after Harry's owl.  She's one that we are for sure keeping as I have grown rather attached to her.  I'm pretty sure I'll name the other two we get to keep after Harry Potter characters as well.

Hedwig

Here's an excellent shot I got of Omelette while she was in the nesting box.  She is still by far our friendliest hen.  Not a lap bird by any means, but she always comes running when we come outside.

Omelette

Four Weeks Old and Moving Out

About two weeks ago, we moved the six chicks out of the bath tub and into the dog crate in the garage.  They did okay in there, but it was clear they were going to need more room soon.  About a week ago, I started turning off the heat lamp during the day but still leaving it on at night.  We've been waiting for the night time temperatures to stay above 50 every night and for the babes to feather out more.  They are four weeks old now, and we moved them to the small outside coop today.  I'm a little nervous that they will be cold tonight, but they have each other, and I closed them in the house part of the coop.  The books say they'll be okay, but I'm still a nervous momma.

I think I'm starting to take this chicken thing a bit too far...

They grow SO fast!

Omelette was very interested in the new additions.

They loved the dirt box I put in the corner.
There were lots of ants in the dirt, and they went crazy for them!

It amazes me how naturally they start normal chicken activities.  Upon moving them outside, they immediately started scratching in the dirt and snapping up the ants and other bugs around.  They were playing on the ramp and going in and out of the hen house.  They are so much fun to watch!