So Andy and I got our brand new baby chicks on Tuesday! It’s so fun and exciting. So I thought I’d share a little bit of what I learned, what no one ever told me, and what we named them!

What I’ve Learned So Far:

Boy do chickens have little personalities! They are so sweet and loveable. But each of them truly does have a different personality. As you’ll see in the names we’ve named them (below), we named them after their personalities really.

They’re easy, but at the same time, a lot of work. I know that might sound weird. But what I mean is that right now, while they’re hanging out in their little box, they do not need much attention, although you can give them attention as well. However, their box needs cleaned every day – and they’re the size of cotton balls! How much will their coop need cleaned, I wonder. Ack!

What No One Every Told Me:

They poop – A LOT! They also eat it and lay in it. They are so adorable and you want to pick them up – but they love their own poop – so keep that in mind. Their tiny little box needs cleaned practically every day.

They start establishing their pecking order right away. They’re already working on who’s in charge. They peck at each other, and put each other in their places (as you can see Dee Dee doing to Duck in this pic). Andy and I have a bet on who will be in charge, but we’ll see.

They grow FAST! On the second day they already started getting their real feathers (instead of their cute baby ones). They’re also definitely bigger already. I wouldn’t say that they’re double or anything, but they are definitely growing fast. I hope we can get their coop built in time!

What We Named Them:

Now here’s the thing. If you’re buying (or incubating) chicks that you plan to eat – do not name them! This makes them a pet and it will be harder to kill them for food later on. This is kind of a given. However, these four ladies that we got now are going to be staying with us until they stop producing eggs. That’ll be awhile so we decided to name them. They’ll be our main chicas so they will kind of be pets to us since we’re using them solely for their eggs.

Dee Dee – First up is Dee Dee. She is a Rhode Island Red and is mostly brown. We named her Dee Dee because she is a total Dare Devil (dd)! She jumps out of your hand into the box from so high up, she’s super fast, and she’s just a little pistol. She’s so much fun though.

Trouble – Trouble is also a Rhode Island Red but she has a darker brown stripe on her back than Dee Dee (that’s how we tell those two apart). The Rhode Island Reds are SO MUCH more active and crazy than the Americanas. But we named her Trouble because she’s always starting trouble with the others. She is always pecking at their eyes and waking them up when they’re sleeping. She is also the one we attempted to introduce our dogs to before our little dog (Danger) tried to eat her. Thankfully she’s alright though. lol

Beep – Beep is an Americana who is mostly yellow with black and white stripes. We named her Beep because she is always backing up! When we hold her she’s always trying to back out of our hands. It’s really cute. So Andy started going “beep beep” like a truck does when it backs up and hence the name!

Duck – Last, but certainly not least, Duck. She is an Americana that is mostly black/grey with a little yellow on her face and belly and also a little white. Why Duck, you may ask? Well it’s not because we thought it would be cute since she totally isn’t a duck. It’s actually because she tends to duck under everyone else. She always wants to be underneath the others. It’s so cute. She is really sweet and timid. I think she’ll end up being at the bottom of the pecking order. But she’s so sweet.

So that’s everyone and what we’ve learned so far. No doubt you’ll see these gals in future posts so I thought I’d introduce you guys. No…on to building that chicken coop!