Our first chicks

[Tomhusker]

My wife and I put the final touches on our little coop (I am still writing that adventure) last night and then drove south of town to pick up our first ever batch of chicks. We were going to start out with mature birds, but I really wanted to do it from the beginning. We compromised and settled on ten 7 1/2 week old Barred Rock chicks.
We weren't impressed with the breeder, feeling almost like we rescued the chicks as much as purchased them. They did look lively and healthy though, so for $!.50 each, I'll give it a go.
We got home and introduced them into the coop. I sat and watched them for an hour as they explored their new home, sampling the pine shavings and stretching their wings. I could almost hear them talking about it, "This place is very' HUGE!!" (It's not really, built for 4 or 5. We'll cull later.) The chicks don't seem to be very acclimated to human contact. I hope I can fix that.
Anyway, we have to attach the run to the coop and then let them out to explore the real world. We will get to that tomorrow. I want them to know where home is first. A couple of pics:

Fighting off the skeeters while painting trim on the main door.

A new home to enjoy

 

[EggsForIHOP]

ahhh!!! They look like some of our babies! How cute! And their coop looks lovely as well! Bet they are saying all kinds of good things about ya'll today! Now the count down starts for the first egg!

 

[beejentl]

What I could see of the coop looks great!!! Good job! The chicks are so cute! What kind are they?

 

[Tomhusker]

Thanks, they are Barred Rocks. The coop is my first attempt at building anything that would actually house a living being. I am writing the build up for my BYC page and will create it once it is done.

 

[scarter]

Give them lots of treats and spend lots of time with them and they will be pets. Our first original five are totally spoiled girls. But then the rest are normal chickens LOL!

 

[allieloveschickens]

Adorable coop and chickies! Though I think they are younger than 7 1/2 weeks, my BR girls are only 3 1/2 weeks and appear to have more feathers than yours do, they have almost grown out of all their fluff already!

 

[Lolita]

 

[featherz]

Yah, I was wondering about the age also. Do BR chicks feather more slowly? My chicks look older and bigger with more feathering and they are only 4.5 weeks old (RIR). But I'm a total newbie, so always curious about these things!

Great looking coop and babies!

 

[Tomhusker]

I'm pretty new at it too. Heck they coulda hatched Friday for all I know.

I do know that the breeder said they will be 8 weeks on Monday. However, the conditions they were being kept in leads me to believe that they may be a bit behind in growing. No worries, I can help them with that. Bigger home, plenty of fresh food and water and lots of attention is on the menu for them.

I think Saturday morning I will introduce them to the outside run.

 

[wsdareme]

I would bet the hen house that they aren't any more than TWO weeks old. You might need to keep them warm -- do you have a heat lamp?