I think these chicks are about a month old, maybe a bit more. They’re the first ones I’ve had a hen hatch out successfully. She got pretty adamant about sitting on a batch of eggs, so I figured the summer was a good time to let her try. Usually they lose interest in them for the 21 days are up, and they wander off and I end up throwing away a bunch of eggs. This time she stayed long enough to hatch three out of about twenty. I put a chick waterer in the henhouse and tossed some feed on the floor, but basically she took care of them. It was kind of cool watching her break feed pellets with her beak so they could eat them.

This was just their second day coming outside, but now they’re on the move all the time. Fortunately the cats seem to have no interest in them. Animals are funny that way; if something is born on the farm, they seem to understand that it belongs, while if you brought chicks home from the store, they’d be all over them if you allowed it.