Have you ever had or wanted a pet chicken? During this crazy year my family and I were building a chicken coop and on Easter morning we became the owners of ten chicks. Since Easter, we have learned a great deal about raising chickens, like the fact that they try to peck at things on you when you sit with them, including your clothes, watch and face. We have also learned that each chick has a unique personality just like people, some of our chicks are shy, some are curious, and some are born leaders. Our chicks are getting bigger every day and as they get bigger, they get more active. One of our favorite routines is our nightly treats that we provide them including oats, watermelon, and mealworms.

Naming all of our chicks was very fun. We named most of them after their physical appearance. We have one named Oreo because she has black feathers, we also have one named Rooster because we can now tell that he is a rooster instead of a chicken. My personal favorite chick is one we named Dark Wing. We named her Dark Wing because her wings are black while the rest of her is a tan-orange color. Dark Wing is my favorite because she seems like a curious leader-like chicken. She is the one to explore things before other chickens do. Dark Wing is also the friendliest chick because she is not afraid of humans and she will willingly let us pet her.

When we first got our chicks they were about four weeks old and they were so small. But now they are thirteen weeks old and they all have feathers and they eat a ton of food every day. In five weeks our chicks will be considered chickens because they will be eighteen weeks old. We currently feed our chicks chicken food throughout the day and oats or dried worms in the evenings. We feed them oats for a special treat and dried worms because that makes the shells of their eggs stronger. Raising these chicks has been a very fun and fascinating experience and I cannot wait until we have fresh eggs to enjoy. Chickens are a lot of work, but it is fun to raise them and watch them grow.