The Chicks Are Here!

This year we surprised the kids with chickens for their Easter present. That's not why we got them, but it was convenient since it's Good Friday and all. They actually came in the mail, but they have been staying at my friends house until I went to pick them up today. She lives in a residential area just like we do and not far from here. Yet, even in the city they manage to keep an impressive vegetable garden along with 10 chickens.

It's always nice to have someone ahead of you proving that it can be done.

So now we are the proud owners of five baby Rhode Island Red chicks!

Just like most newborns they pretty much sleep, eat, peep, and poop. These little rhodies will probably start laying at the end of the summer and have the potential to produce from 250 to 300 eggs a year.

This basket of eggs is from my friend's chicken shown in the second photo.

I am definitely looking forward to eating fresh from the nest eggs in the morning, and that is the main reason we got the chickens, but they will also be the family pets. The kids have both been SO excited to meet their new little friends and the chicks are really excited too, or maybe anxious or shocked might be a better word. Actually this breed of hen are known to be extremely good natured and have even been called the "lap chicken" because of how much they act like a sweet household pet.
The surprise was supposed to be for the kids, but I think I am more surprised than anyone. Do we really own five chickens? We just started talking about the idea a few weeks ago and I figured it might be something that we do next spring, but now here we are with a bunch of peeps, and they are not made of marshmallow.