Both sets of babies are absolutely ADORABLE!!! Great photos!
My little flock and I hit a milestone yesterday - I'd decided I was going to sit there as long as it took for them to get curious/trusting enough to come to me. I started out sitting there, with my hand in the brooder, next to the feeder and then added some feed to my hand. Most were sleeping, but my head honcho (he/she is the bravest and always the first to inspect any changes in the brooder) jumped right up into my hand, scratched around, pecked at the feed for a few minutes, and ROOSTED on my thumb knuckle! The rest woke up and cautiously made their way over to my hand, some pecking at the feed, others pecking at my hand to see my reaction...I just held perfectly still and within moments I was swarmed by 21 fuzzy-butts pecking and vying for my hand! Now, not only do they come to my voice when I go downstairs to check on them, they now don't fly to the other side of the brooder when I reach down to refill feed or change water.
I'm now down to two chicks that still have a little pastiness going on, and both of them seem to be going longer between cleanings and their droppings after I clean them off are more solid and colored correctly. One of the two allows me to pick him/her up without fussing as much, holds still while I moisten and clean off the vent, and only squirms a few times while I'm briskly drying the down with a paper towel. I go to put it back in the brooder and it'll just sit on my hand, then casually hop off!
Slowly but surely, trust is forming, I'm seeing personalities differentiate, I'm seeing a difference in the beginnings of tail feathers and tops of beaks, and pasty-butts are clearing up nicely!
I'll try to post some photos later today after I change out their bedding, probably in the thread "Post New Chick Photos Here."
Loving my "baby chickies" (as my toddler calls them)
