Chicks, New Digs - Unite!

Who forgot to let Mother Nature know it's April?

Weather notwithstanding, I had an opportunity yesterday to create a new improved, larger chick pen.  I had a roll of hardware wire so I put it to use.

The hardware wire is 1" x 1" the perfect size to contain little chicks.

I deemed the perfect size to be 4' long x 2' wide.

I bent it 90 degrees at 2' and then again at 4', times two, to create a rectangle.

The last 2' section I added 2 extra inches, cut out the one row of vertical wires and used the horizontal wires as my wires to bend around the next side to connect the ends together.

Viola! Easy and cheap chick container.

I'm hoping this pen will hold the three chicks for the next six weeks as they continue to grow.  I'm amazed at how quickly they are getting their feathers and starting to resemble ugly, gangely baby birds.  The cute baby chick phase is short lived.  Soon, however, like the ugly duckling they will blossom into beautiful hens.

 At the end of week two they have wing and tail feathers.

I still can't tell them apart, other than the baby in the back left corner, who appears to be slightly younger than the other two.  Her feathers aren't as far as along.

The girls and friends.

The above photo was from Tuesday, when we had no snow and the weather was more spring like.  Both the alpacas and the deer were enjoying the tender greens poking up from the winter brown grasses.  The alpacas are within the fencing, the deer are not.

As we move closer to May, I have a laundry list of spring chores.  Included amongst the list is having the veterinarian out to microchip Daisy, help set up a vaccination schedule, pregnancy checks for the three girls, Twizzler, Felicity and Birdie and to look at a possible case of mange with Bo.

Also I should be finding out in the next couple of weeks when the shearers are scheduled to come.  Any volunteers for shearing day are welcome!