Thank you for all the kind replies and welcomes! I'm going to try posting some pics of them from when we first got them @ 3 days old & some more recent ones, too.
And yes, most of my friends & family (the ones who don't keep chickens) think I'm crazy. My mom even made the comment, "Erica, they're JUST chickens." To her credit, I do talk about them quite often, but considering she loves birds almost as much as I do & still has a pet parrot, I really thought she'd know better than that. Of course it became my goal to show her how my girls are so much better than "just chickens" & so she now receives daily photos & videos of them proving her wrong. You're welcome mom! O
And thanks for the ideas about the tunnels & other toys! My 3 (human) kids built a "chick playground" for them, including a little ramp leading to the top of what we call "the chick cave" (a small upside down cardboard box w/ a doorway cut out), a swing (2 old shoelaces tied to a stick in the middle), a couple of sticks for roosting, & old toilet paper & paper towel rolls. They LOVE it all, except they haven't really gotten the hang of the swing. And they usually sit on the paper towel roll instead of the sticks.
Now, I'm going to stop blabbering on & on & actually ask a couple of questions. At what age do chicks/chickens typically become interested in eating meal worms/dried meal worms, instead of just playing w/ them or looking @ the worms & then back @ me like, "um, do you actually expect me to eat that mom?" And no matter how I've given it
to them, or what I've mixed into it, I cannot get them to eat yogurt. Any suggestions?
And one last question (for now): While my girls all have different personalities, they look almost exactly the same. Right now I can tell them apart fairly quickly based on how many head feathers/fluff each one has, but once they are fully feathered that won't be possible. I'd like a way to be able to them apart physically- any suggestions??
It sounds like your chicks have landed in a fun home!
My chicks have always loved mealworms, I think they would eat the entire bag if they could get a hold of it (and they are 1 year old now, not tiny chicks anymore). Sometimes it just takes 1 bird to eat something, then the rest decide they have to also. Some never do decide to like mealworms but there will be plenty for them to like besides those. And if they don't like yogurt, they might like cottage cheese.
The main thing is that they eat their regular feed that has all the nutrients in it and keep the snacking down to 10% of their diet.
Here's a great chart listing healthy treats for chickens:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treat-chart-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens
As for telling them apart, they'll still have some differences in appearance even when fully grown but if you're concerned, maybe you could try the colored leg bands to id them.
welcome to BYC !!
