The Chicklets have Landed!

We brought the toddler chicks home yesterday afternoon.  They seem to be adjusting well, taking to the feed immediately.  We put them up in the hen house last night before we went out to the Plant City Livestock Auction (good Lord... I'll have to post about that someday).  When we got back last night around 10:30, we realized that they had left the hen house and had gone back down the ladder and were huddled in the corner of the coop in the dirt.  We trooped out there in the dark with a flashlight,  picked them up and put them back in the hen house, where they stayed until this morning.  They weren't raised in a coop with a roost, so we'll have to teach them how to use one.  Things will stay cleaner when they sleep on the roost at night. Jay is building the roost, and a little door to shut them in the hen house today.

We haven't settled on names yet. I have to observe them for a while to see their personalities.  The Black Cochin is the oldest, born January 3.  ((A Capricorn!) She's the first one to figure things out and seems the most independent.  I don't know if that's just 'her' or if it's because she's nearly a month older, or if it's because the other three were nestlings and she was from a different brood.  Either way, here she is.

The other three are nestlings and were born January 31.  (Aquarius!) They are all three Ameracaunas, however one of them carries the Frizzle gene, which means her feathers grow in a such a way as they appear inside out.  She is very fluffy, and unfortunately her coloring makes her appear to be very dirty.   She figures things out from watching the Cochin.

The other two, called "The Twins" for now, are easy to tell apart in person, and in photos as long as they are both present.  I am already having a hard time telling them apart alone in photos.  One of them (the dark one) is bigger and a little slower than the other. These two are pretty tight.  Where one goes, the other goes.  They chatter and peep to each other as they bustle along.

This morning, I was able to coax the Cochin down out of the hen house with a handful of Gamecock feed, which is a really nice blend of seeds and grains.  Right now, they're busily eating the Bermuda grass that has been Jay's nemesis for years. I put in some kale from the garden, and the Cochin and the Frizzle liked it, but I couldn't get the twins to notice.