Well, the Littles have officially been evicted - er, emanicipated - from the cave! They can eat out of the big feeder, drink out of the big waterer and spend most of their time out of their pen, wandering in and out of the coop/run/great outdoors. Still an occasional nip on the head from the Bigs if the Littles get too obnoxious but integration has gone flawlessly for the most part.
Windy, cold and rainy tonight - the rain could turn to a brief snow later on in the wee hours, but it won't last much past dawn. The pen is almost ready for the new occupants arriving tomorrow. All I had to do was pull out some of the bedding and replace it with fresh, put a fresh towel on the heating pad, and turn it back up to 6. The Littles don't really use it anymore - I had turned it down to 1 a few days ago and I find most of them on the roost or piled into a corner of the run at night anyway so they barely noticed the drop.
I had to get some Buff Brahmas, since the ones I thought I had turned out to be 3 RIRs...two of them roos. <sigh> I didn't think those three could be Buff Brahmas, but I've never had them before, although I've wanted them for forever! When the clerk pulled these three out of the bin clearly marked Buff Brahmas I questioned the lack of feathers on the legs, but a gentleman who had been waiting all day with us for the chicks to arrive and be unpacked assured me that I was fine - Buffs seem to take a little time to develop those leg feathers. Like an idiot I believed him instead of the little voice in my head telling me not to be so gullible. Live and learn. So the new for-really Buffs will be here tomorrow...and they'd better have more fuzz on their legs than I do! They are currently in Casper, the mail truck leaves there at 3 am and should be in our area by 7. Then I just wait for Jan (postmistress here in Cowely) to call me and Ken will go pick them up. I'll keep them in the house under the small heating pad for a few hours just to make sure they've all had a good drink, a shot of electrolyte, and are eating before I put them outside under Mama Heating Pad.
Remember when I told you this method was too easy and the Littles were outgrowing their need for me way too soon - that the main drawback to this method was that it was so simple that raising chicks became a total joy instead of a royal pain? Um, yeah.
