Chicks - Grow with me - The first 2 weeks

At the end of the last post, the little one looked lonely and we decided that a companion was needed. We looked on the Gumtree site and noticed someone up near Mount Barker selling newly hatched Pekins. On Australia Day, we drove for an hour and half before arriving at Damien's place where hubby picked out a buff chick. We also got a tour of their setup and all the different breed that they have (but mainly Pekins). They also have a rooster return business, where if your chick turns into a rooster, they will take it back, in return though, you are expected to buy a hen.   Check out their Facebook site - Pekin Pantry - South Australia. It is a closed group and you will need to send a request to join.

Here's the buff chick that we picked out. We named it Buffy, in the hope that it would turn into a girl :)

Drove all the way back on a very hot summer's day and introduced little Buffy to the chick.

There is a noticable size difference. Buffy was only 1-2 days old and the little chick was almost 4 days old. Chicks grow really fast! At this stage, we decided to call the other one Penguin, the grey colouring made it look like a penguin chick don't you think?

Penguin and Buffy both seemed interested in each other, no fighting, but there was a lot of pulling at each others toes. Pekins have feathered feet and this proved to be too interesting to Penguin, who wanted to see if they could come off. Buffy on the other hand was interested in non-feathered feet and kept on pulling at Penguin's toes. Whatever keeps them entertained I suppose.

Chicks run around really fast, I find that they are like those wind up toy cars, they just zoom around and then suddenly stop. The pitter patter of their feet are really cute. After running around all day, it was time for bed. A nice warm snuggly spot under the heat mat and then collapse, baby chick style :)

Penguin wants to know if his/her butt looks big in this photo?

At a week old, you can see some feathers starting to grow on Penguin's wings. Buffy being a few days younger, doesn't have any noticeable feathers yet.

At a week and a half old, more feathers

Buffy at a week and half old with feathers starting to show. We fed them chick crumble, containing a coccidiostat, a medication to prevent Coccidiosis (a parasite) growth in chicks. We went to the Magill Grain store for this, as far as I know, there is no feed version without the coccidiostat. The two chicks loved it when it was moistened with water. If they were given dry crumble, it became a game to see how far they could spread it. The wet crumble does foul relatively quickly, especially in the height of summer, the top of the crumble dries out, whilst the interior remains moist and fungi quickly grows in it. It became a habit of mine to only provide small amounts of wet crumble at a time (to prevent waste) and replace it with fresh damp crumble in the morning and night.

The two week stage was a momentous event, they got moved into a new brooder. The styrofoam box had sides that were too shallow. So into a plastic tub they went. At this stage they also realised that if they climbed on top of the heat mat, they can get warm bums.

I think they like it, they even tried some chicken yoga :P

Tune in next time to follow Penguin and Buffy!