David and Ellie brought home our chickens last night.  We have 16 chicks: 4 buckeyes, 4 buff orpingtons, 4 black barred rocks, and 4 australorps (who are 2 weeks older than the rest of the chicks).

My heart feels tired and happy from watching them and learning how to care for them.  I had never held a bird before last night.  It took awhile to figure out how to trust myself to do that.

I’ll tell you more about the birds later.  Tomorrow we might take the four Australorps outside for a walk in the grass because they are older than the other chicks. 

Eloise has been great with the birds.  We’ve been trying to handle them during focused periods and then giving them lots of time without extra stimulation.  So far, everyone is playing well together.

They’ve already grown.  It’s crazy.  They are way bigger now than the picture above.  How could they do that in one day?

David has set up a chicken cam so that we can watch the chickens in their brooder without disturbing them by going into the garage.  This is wonderful — yet another reason why I love David.

Our terms of service with our service provider won’t let us post a live chicken cam feed, but we’ll figure something out.