Chicks Day 5

Project - Spring Chicken is officially on Day 5 of the video blogging project. I missed Sunday as we were out all day at the May Day Parade, and yesterday I discovered I had no battery juice left to take video with! >:( I do plan to load a video for today. They are sleeping right now, I think it's the first time they've been quiet since they got here.

Some of the birds are developing a little faster than others. A few have little baby wing feathers. The Marans are discovering they have strong powerful legs and they can run REALLY fast with them, even sometimes running right over the littler chickens. The little red Ameracauna I loved so much has a slight cross beak - a genetic problem from bad breeding. If if turns out to be a rooster, his name is "soup", if it's a hen, I'll wait to see what color egg she lays before deciding what to do with her.

Incidentally, I was sold the wrong bag of feed at the feed store. I have large crumbles and what I needed for small chicks was more of a powder (small grains) type feed. Most feeds stores will not take returns, and feed can sometimes spoil before chicks are old enough to eat adult sized crumbles depending on your storage methods and humidity. I hate to see feed go to waste, particularly when its becoming so expensive. The bag of feed is currently being stored in my kitchen, (it's extra convenient to feed the chicks if they are right next to each other). Having been sold the wrong feed before (a recurring problem with my local store) I know from experience that you can toss it in a food processor to break it down. I don't need so much at a time just yet so I'm running about 1/3 of a cup per feeding through my mortar and pestle.