Farm Day 1/29

How fast they grow, right? Time has a magical way of going really fast and really slow all at the same time. I swear the last batch of chicks hatched just yesterday, but, really, they're already over 2 weeks old.

Here's one of the little guys this week - getting taller and lots of tiny little feathers. Headed to what I call the tiny hawk stage.

The chicks are in a brooder with a red heat light. Sometimes, chicks will peck one another and keep pecking, liking picking at a hangnail. The red light keeps them from pecking. I'm not enough a chicken psychologist to know why that works, but no pecking so we'll stay the course.

And here's the same little guy the day after he/she was hatched.They are soooo creepy right after hatch - sticky and matted. Not cute. And then 2 hours later - voila. Fluffy goodness.

I have those 39 eggs in the incubator scheduled to hatch on 2/7. More creepy to fluffy joy to come.

I'm about to start a second incubator too - can you have too many chicks? Let's try.

Speaking of chicks, we have some off the farm chicks coming to us from Cackle Hatchery in MO. We ordered chocks from there when I was a kid. One of my favorite memories is my mom letting us go late to school so we could go to the post office and pick up the chicks. One might think that the post office folks are thrilled by having hundreds of chicks, peeping away in the background. It must be some sort of torture, though, after 20 minutes of incessant chick noise. They are always very pleased to hand them off. We have about 50 chicks coming - 2 kinds of red sex links, barred rocks, white rocks. Check out the Cackle site here. Even if you are not ordering chicks, it great fun to chicken shop.

The piggles are growing and growing. They are are pushy little things and thought my overalls were a bit of a plaything this morning. I'm always trying to mentally work out how the pigs are so smart, and it really manifests itself in their curiosity. Always sticking their snouts in somewhere, always chewing on anything available. They are interesting animals, but I would not call them charming to be sure.These little tillers on legs got a new feeder today. They can add up to a pound a day - lots of kibble needed!

Egg delivery tomorrow. I'll see some of your front doors soon - have a great Saturday!

XO - Holly