Housecleaning with the Cheeps

The chicks Greg picked up at the feed store over the past two weeks are already doing their part for the Mighty Small Farm and generating a fair share of material for the raised beds out in the yard.

Scooping up their collection of soiled newspaper, pine shavings, poops, and spilled chick-starter feed involves the broom and dustpan, which they do not like, and an audience of cats attracted to the extra-loud peeping the broom's appearance provokes.

The Cheepies reward for suffering through this house-cleaning, however, is a big, new pile of fresh pine shavings, which are great fun to climb on and scratch through!

Primaries, tail feathers, and secondary feathers are all coming in and slowly replacing their down. The chick on the far left, looking at the camera, is one of the Ameraucanas; the yellow ones are Leghorns and Cochins; the dark ones are mystery chicks and Jersey Giants; you can see one of the Rhode Island Red chicks on the right, and the others are out of the shot.

After they've played in the shavings for a bit, I put their food and water back in the brooder box, and their attention is quickly diverted to new games...

...King (Queen) of the Hill!

Queen of the Food Jar is one of the Jersey Giants, with the other JG, a RIR, and two of the Cochins at the feeder. The chick in the lower right is an Ameraucana. See its little tail?

As I'm typing this, I can hear them scratching in the shavings pile, very musical happy cheeps, running around, pecks at spots on the side of the cardboard brooder box, and the occasional bang as someone flies off the top of a food or water bottle and hits the heat lamp!