Science Sunday ~ Baby Chicks!

Technically, this is an experiment of sorts. Yesterday we picked up eight baby chicks. Considering we’ve never been able to have chickens before, we are in unchartered territory around our house.

We are in the process of building a coop for the little ones, but since they still have to stay inside for a bit longer, we’re figuring out exactly what we want to do. In the meantime, our chicks are keeping warm under their warming lamp, plumping up on their chick feed and amusing our kids to no end.

Originally we had only planned on getting six chicks, but somehow ended up with eight…just in case one turned out to be a rooster or in case one of our chicks met an untimely demise. The plan was to get all Rhode Island Reds or Red S*x Links {umm, yeah, there’s a reason I’m putting that asterisk in there!}, but the breeder we bought them from talked us into a mixture for fun ~ 2 of both of the above breeds and then a mix of 3 others, but all brown egg layers. And because I know SO little about different breeds, that’s about all I can really share ~ all I heard was ‘blah, blah, blah’ when she got into all the technical stuff.

SO, I suppose I have some questions for YOU all today. What are your best tips for raising chicks? We’re in the midst of mapping our the plans for the coop and chicken tractor, but if you have any tips or websites that you know are chocked full of great advice, we’d love to hear about them! :) We have months to go before we’ll be enjoying fresh eggs, but in the meantime need to figure out how to keep the hens safe from nearby predators {fox, owls, bobcat and even bears}. Leave a comment and share!!

Stay tuned too ~ next Sunday I’ll start posting our experiments again! We’ve been missing those fun little breaks, but we’re still working on our Nancy Larson Science 1 and just finished up our Zoology unit. Don't forget to check out some other great science ideas at Science Sunday hosted by Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.