My Little Ones, with photos

Hi all. I'm new to chickens. I finally got pix of my chicks up, so I thought I'd share them (since I know how people love to gush over the little ones!). They will be one month old tomorrow.

I'm posting all my chick photos to flickr in a set, which I'll keep updating as I load more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157600312195114/


The Details:

We moved to Madison, Wisconsin last August, and shortly after I heard about having urban chickens. I've never been much of a pet person, but having four hens in our backyard sounded very appealing to me--especially having fresh eggs (which I've never had before). After perusing the BYC forums, reading lots of chicken books from the library, and imaging a coop and run in our backyard, my husband and I attended a "City Chickens 101" class run by Mad City Chickens (http://www.madcitychickens.com/) and I was hooked. My husband and cousin who we live with are still warming to the idea, but are supportive.

I split an order from Ideal Poultry with a couple other people in the Madison, Wisconsin area. They said that they were marked when they came (we had an order of 19 chicks, about 15 of which were different kinds), but they weren't marked, so we had an interesting time trying to figure out which ones were mine:

Light Brahma (Petunia)
Buff Brahma (St. Helen)
Rhode Island Red (still nameless)
Silver Laced Wyandotte (Sterling)
The four together: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/604672117/in/set-72157600312195114/

The Light Brahma was crippled from Day 1. She had trouble walking on her right foot, and was off-balance most of the time. She was eating, drinking, and pooping fine though, and still was just as spunky as the others. She grew fine for the most part, but was developmentally behind the others by a day or two. Since she was unsteady she had trouble preening herself, and in the first few days had pasty butt issues. Petunia was everyone's favorite who visited--she was just so adorable and had a good personality. But at just under two weeks of age she started crying and wouldn't stop unless she was cuddled (this was more an issue of comfort than of warmth--I had a heat lamp on her). The next morning she passed away.

The other three have been doing really well. I have been completely amazed at how fast they grow. I'd come home from work and 8 hours later they would suddenly have tail feathers in! Then they started perching and flying, and now they're almost ready to head outside to the coop.

My husband and I are in the process of building a coop. I'm going to post info and photos once it's finally up (hopefully tomorrow?).


Updated to add: Do Rhode Island Reds generally have black marking to them also? My RIR has had black mixed in since she was a fuzzy chick, and now has the tips of her feathers coming in black. I think it looks wonderful, but I'm just wondering if this is normal for the RIR breed?

Specific photos of my RIR at one month old:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/604854383/in/set-72157600312195114/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/604854511/in/set-72157600312195114/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/604854467/in/set-72157600312195114/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/604910775/in/set-72157600312195114/
Here's a chick photo with the black stripe down her head: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/604672117/in/set-72157600312195114/