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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Backyard Chicks


Well, we've officially crossed over.  After hearing about how chickens eat not only scorpions, cockroaches, and other bugs- but they kill rattlesnakes too, and let's not forget- FREE EGGS, we knew it was time to finally get our own backyard chicks.   One of our main concerns was how our dogs would react to the chickens, because they are after all hunters.  See what happened....
When we first showed our small dog- who by the way is the more fearless of our two dogs, the chicks she wanted to eat one.  Her hunting instincts were pretty strong and she was physically shaking to mind our commands to be nice.

Then I got an idea.  Cookie (our dog) has had 2 liters of puppies before we got her, so she had some mothering instincts.  So I laid her down and set one chick up to her like a puppy would be.  Her reaction was exactly what I had hoped it would be.  She sniffed the chick then treated it like one of her puppies.  We then put a few more chicks up to her.  She relaxed, and even fell asleep while the chicks climbed on top of her and under her leg.  The chicks snuggled up to her and went to sleep too.  Here's a few pictures.



Every once in awhile she will come get us and let us know she wants to check on her babies.  So we take her into the room where the chicks are so she can see they're ok.

Let's hope this lasts!!

Meanwhile the chicks have to be inside for a couple of weeks, and have a lamp on them for about a month..... boy are they smelly!!! We're changing out their box daily and the smell of the room where they're at is pretty bad. I can't wait until they're outside!

I'll keep you updated on their progress.

2 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! The pics of the chicks with your dog are the cutest pictures ever!! ~ Ashlee @ thecrunchymoose.blogspot.com

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  2. Thanks! I hope the temperament between the two lasts!

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