Our new fine feathered friends!

Back in April, our farm population doubled in size with the addition of thirteen baby chicks! In keeping with our farm's aesthetic, we chose breeds of chickens that are extra fluffy and feather-footed. We have seven mottled cochins, two black silkies, two mille fleur bearded d'uccles, one buff brahma bantam, and one porcelain Belgian bearded d'uccle. They were straight run, mail-ordered chicks, so we had no idea what ratio of males to female we would receive. Now at seven weeks, we have a pretty good idea: 5 roosters and 8 hens.

One of our mottled cochins just a few days old!

We've had a great time watching them grow and coming up with names for each one.

Tiny babies! There were difficult to tell apart when they were little,
but the mottled cochin with the black beak is Gareth, the lightest
colored mottled cochin is Emerson, the black silkie standing is
 Kylo Hen, and the black silkie sitting is Rosebud.

The roosters are:          

Bertie Rooster        

Gareth Blackbeak

Emerson

Kylo Hen

Augustus

The hens are:

Rosebud

Henrietta

Aunt Agatha

Evelyn (Evie)

Ginger

Leia

Sage

and last but not least Smidge, who is a tiny chicken clone of our goofball alpaca, Smudge!

Smidge being extra silly. She loves to sit on high places, and their
 food container makes for an excellent perch!

They started out living upstairs, taking up half of Mister Bilbo's space (he was NOT amused) and as the weather finally warmed up and they grew a bit, they moved to a pen in the garage. The girls are going to live up at the alpaca barn once they are fully grown, and the boys will be residing at the hay barn. Beside laying eggs, our chickens will be helping to keep the bug population down at our barns.

Kylo Hen (left) and Rosebud (right)

Emerson striking a pose!