Doesn't everyone keep baby chicks in the kitchen this time of year? Ours came to us a week old from a farmer out towards McCleary. ("If one dies or turns out to be a rooster, just bring 'em back; I'll give you another.") They came home from the farm in a shoe box and took up residence on the kitchen table, the regular kitchen light bulb replaced with a heat-lamp for now and my heated seed-starting mat under their container for added warmth.
They peep continuously and make many other chirp-ping noises. They've been named Fluffy and Sunflower and have doubled in size since arrival. They're soft as all get out and sleep like the dead, which can be a little alarming, but when awake they flap their perfect little wings and can hop-fly strongly enough to get over the top of their container if we don't pay attention. They yellow one has perfect chipmunk strips down her back and speckled wings. The black one has a snow white tummy and bottom and likes to peck.
Today we moved them and their heat lamp to a big, tall wooden box in the garage with air holes in the side and a wire top. They'll stay there for another 4-6 weeks until they're big enough to live outside where, what, by the end of summer hopefully, they'll be integrated with our current flock of three and up in the hen house laying green and blue eggs. Unless one's a rooster. Fingers crossed.
