The Chickens

So I've been remiss at providing updates on the chickens. Here's the scoop:

We got them on March 14th when they were 1-2 days old. Here's what they looked like the day we got them:

We kept them in a box in the kitchen with a 250W red lamp shining on them to help them stay warm. They didn't cause any trouble, and seemed to be doing fine. After one week, one of them died suddenly. Not sure of the cause, but there were no visible signs of stress.

This is what they looked like a week later (3/21):

They were still cute and fluffy... but were getting braver and started being interested in what was going on around them. All of them (except the one that died) appeared to be healthy.

Then again, a week later (3/28):

We moved them out into the garage, though still in a cardboard box. Lucky birds; we let then free-range for a while in the afternoons. They loved it!

Then, here's a shot taken on April 5th:

Here's the girls, showing off their brood. The girls know each chicken by name, but I don't.

Then, here's what they looked like this week (4/22), when I was working like crazy to get their coop to an "inhabitable" state so we could get them out of the box they've outgrown:

Finally! I finished the installing the door to their coop at 11:00 PM last night, so the chickens got to move in to their new home this morning. They loved it. They were running around like crazy; jumping and flying around. It was too funny. The exterior still needs its wood shingles, and the roof needs to be completed, so that's my next task, but at least they're our of the box in the garage. And what's nice is, the coop was built mainly of recycled building materials. I asked the local Toys'R'Us for their old pallets and they told me I could have as many as i wanted. So that's where I got all the 2x4ish materials and what will be the siding. I had to buy a couple peices of plywood, but it's better than having to buy everything else too. I'll post on the coop construction later.