They Grow Up So Fast

The Easter babies are 5 weeks old now, which I reckon would be like 5 years old in human age.

Here they were at about 1 or 2 days old (some hatched Saturday, some Sunday, and Baby, or #13, wasn't even hatched yet):

At about a week old I started letting them out of the cage to run around and explore in the coop, and also see how the other Ladies were going to deal with them.

At about 2 weeks old, I brought the cage out into the run so when I let the chicks out, if they or Buff (the Mama hen) freaked out they would have a familiar, safe place to run hide. (They did fine, though, no problems.) Here, Buff is teaching the chicks to dust bath.

I had been worried about when it was getting time for Buff to teach the chicks to sleep on a roost, I didn't have a lower roost, and really no place to put one because I didn't think about raising babies when I designed my chicken house.

At just about 3 weeks old, I went in to put the chickens up for the night and found Buff teaching the babies to get on the existing roost.

For about a week, Buff and the babies holed up on the floor in the corner between the wall and the cage. They don't use the cage anymore at all.

At about 5 weeks, give or take, Buff brings the chicks on the roost to sleep and dares any of the other hens to say a thing about it.

Five weeks old, they're getting huge, and changing looks and colors.

Some Live Action chick vid. Can you spot the (probable) roos?