It only took a week and the chicks have their little wings!  They can’t fly yet but they can leap with great conviction.  High enough that we have had to cover the brooder just in case.  Just what we’d need, an escaped chicken convict being chased by two cats and a dog!

According to the chicken bible I have been using the second week is when they start getting their tail feathers.  As if on cue we got them a week ago tomorrow and the little buggers are sprouting tail feathers!

We have been keeping them busy turning over their litter on a daily basis.  If you give them dried meal worms they do something called food running.  Evidently chickens don’t or can’t eat something that isn’t small enough to be eaten in one peck.  If they find something like a worm, or even a piece of cooked spaghetti noodle, they will start tear ass-ing around the coop with all the others in hot pursuit.  The little chicks do this with the meal worm treats.  Just throw a small handful of them in to them and watch the games begin!  The ones who don’t get them immediately will commence to scratching the daylights out of the litter, thus turning it over and making it clean….. and we don’t have to do it!  Brilliant!