Free range chickens

Over the weekend my chickies got their first trip outdoors. Boy, were they surprised to discover that it's a big, big world out there!



At first they all stayed quite close to their pen, but they gradually got a little braver...



And it didn't take long until they began doing what chickens do best.



Max says, "Hey, that looks yummy!"



My mama Ameraucauna says to stay away from her baby! Should I tell her that her "baby" is only 2 weeks younger than she is?



All in all a very fun first outing. Thank God for sunshine!

Just for fun

It's so much fun just to sit back and watch these little guys do their own thing. Why didn't anyone ever tell me that chickens would be so much fun??? (And dirty. Little buggers poop everywhere.) But the cuteness pretty much makes up for that, at least so far!


Cochin chicks having a chat


Ducks enjoying their "pond"


Here are my Golden Comet and Buff Orpington hanging out


Nosy little Ameracauna stopping by to see what's going on. She's also the troublemaker who kept us awake last night!


The Golden Comet thinks this spot makes a mighty fine roost!

All four of the teensy bantams (from left to right: Dora, Devonking, Luke, and Max)

Size comparison: Devonking next to Pecos Bill (a standard chick about the same age)


Here's Devonking next to a Barred Rock (standard) who is about 2 weeks older


Wait, where did Devonking go??? :) This young lady frequently has a bantam (or two!) under her wing. I think she'd make a good mama.


Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

New chickies

On Wednesday I drove to pick up a few chicks from a lady about an hour or so away. I intended to get five... I came home with eight. Oops! So for those keeping count, my flock now has 15 lively chickens. All eight of these have been sexed as pullets, and they are about three weeks old. They'll begin laying around August or September, so if you'd like some fresh organic eggs in a few months let me know!

These first two are barred Plymouth Rocks (also called Barred Rocks). They are now the largest of my little flock.

The flash startled them in this picture!


My two brown chickens are Ameracaunas. They will lay eggs that are some variation of blue or green. How cool is that? The first photo shows my escape artist... When I took her out to take pictures she ran off under the furniture and it ended up taking me about fifteen minutes to catch her again! She also is the one who decided that it would be fun to fly out of her box at 3:30 in the morning and then perch on the edge of the ducks' box peeping as loudly as possible. Lucky for me, our dog Melanie is quite interested in the chicken's (ahem) welfare, so she made sure to whine continuously outside the nursery door to let us know something was not right. You know, when I got these guys, I didn't expect to have 3 a.m. wake-up calls!


Here is the other, more shy Ameracauna. This picture was taken right after she flew out of my hands into the ducks' "pond". Poor little wet thing, you can tell she's miserable.


Coming up next in the chicken beauty pageant is my golden-laced Wyandotte. I have high hopes that this will be a very pretty bird! Although you can't tell it from this picture, she is smaller than the Barred Rocks and Ameracaunas. I'd say she's about the same size as Pecos Bill or maybe a bit larger.


Although at first glance this little lady looks a lot like Devonking, she is actually a standard Australorp (standard means not bantam, which are the small birds). Other than the size difference, she also has darker feet than Devonking, a black bill, and no yellow above the bill.


My last two new babies are hard to tell apart unless I'm comparing them side by side, so hopefully I'll be able to figure out who's who in these pictures! Let's see, this first picture appears to be the Golden Comet, which is a hybrid (I believe) that lays a prolific amount of eggs.


This one is a Buff Orpington, a very pretty chicken who will be all fluffy and a lovely buff shade when she feathers out.


Here's a picture of her trying to get as far away as possible from the big scary person with the flashing black box attached to her face!



So what do you think? If you're interested in seeing photos of these breeds as adults I recommend visiting www.feathersite.com.

Welcome to the Curious Chick!

Hi, and welcome to my blog! I'm Ada*, living with my husband in the southeastern United States. We've decided to expand our family somewhat untraditionally... through chickens, ducks, and goats!

We are brand-new "farmers", since it was only yesterday that we became the proud parents of seven chicks and three ducks. I wanted to keep a photo journal of their growth, and this is the best way I know how. So without further ado, meet the newest 10 members of our family!

First up we have 3 lovely--not ugly!--ducklings. The yellow one is the largest and obviously a little older than the grayish-green and black ducks. (We think those two are only a couple days old at best.) The grayish-green duck is not spraddle-legged, I think he was just not quite steady on his feet after being picked up in this picture.







Our next two babies are actually the first two we bought yesterday. They are two week old Cochin/Ameracauna/Rhode Island Red mixes that came from a lovely family that we met at a sale at the Tractor Supply Company yesterday morning. The larger of the two is on the left; he likes to fly around, although he can only go about a foot or so! (I say "he" but none of our peeps have been sexed yet so we have no way of knowing what we've got.) He also likes to perch on my outstretched hand and is quite curious. The smaller one isn't quite so sure of her flying ability yet, so she mainly just hops around. If you look closely you can see the feathers on her legs, that's the cochin in her. These two are definitely the leaders in my little flock so far, probably due to their size and "advanced age." Ha! And can I say, it just cracks me up that they're pecking around in my carpet in this picture!



The next little guy is a fluffy little Rhode Island Red (I think) that has the most perfect little peep. My nine year old brother picked him out at Tractor Supply and named him Pecos Bill, which I think is an awesome name. Hopefully he will stay a he so that no renaming is necessary!



The final four are little teensy bantams, although I have absolutely no idea what breed. My brother, niece, and two nephews each picked out one of these guys. In order of appearance, their names are Luke, Dora, Max (or Maxine if she's a girl), and DevonKing. That last one is pronounced all as one word, by the way. We had a little scare yesterday with DevonKing; we weren't sure he was going to make it as he seemed much more lethargic than the others. Luckily though he is up and pecky and perky this morning!






Aren't all my little guys just precious? I can't wait to watch them grow up! My husband will be building a coop soon, since we will also be picking up a few started pullets. Pullets are young hens, and a started pullet is one who will be laying soon. Stay tuned as we add a milk goat or two. Backyard farming, here we come!


*In the interest of privacy, I'll not be using real names on this blog. Ada is both the name of a favorite teacher, as well as that of the heroine in one of my favorite novels, "Cold Mountain."