Domesticated critters on the homestead (entry for @knowledge-seeker's weekly contest)

With spring peeping through the end of the winter tunnel, it's time to start thinking about CHICKS! They'll be in stock any day now at the local Farm Supply, and I'm excited to dig out the equipment we bought last year and dust it off.

Cuddly chickies!

We started out with the tiny chicks in a bin in the laundry room. Initially, we had a window screen atop the bin. But a certain cat found the chicks quite fascinating, and even though he actually didn't try to get at them, we feared his 12+ pound klutzy self would crash through the screen, so we had to take additional security measures....

Dog crate security.
"Ahhhhh toasty warmth and cheeping birds, life is complete" says Teddy.

We handled the chicks from the start. The kids loved hanging out in the laundry room and playing with them. It helps explain why they're so tame now :)

Tiny fingers gently investigating a tiny wing.

When the chicks got bigger and the weather warmed up enough, I would put all the chicks into a laundry basket and tote them outside to the garden area to explore and peck around. The kids were very willing babysitters when I explained we had to make sure a hawk didn't catch one.

Pixie keeping an eye on everybody.

The novelty of playing with chickens never wore off, even as they grew bigger.

When we'd had the chickens two months, we got Fluffball with an eye toward training her to hang out with them as protection and also herd them/round them up. Then I didn't get around to actually training her to do that (maybe this year?)...but by having her hang out with them from the start, she did learn to not randomly chase them and grab their tails :)

Little bear of a puppy!

Of course, after we were done letting chicks peck around outside, we had to catch them and get them back into the laundry basket. Needless to say, they didn't want to be stuffed back into the basket and taken indoors, so that was both totally frustrating and entertaining. I'd be alternately ranting and giggling uncontrollably. Little Man LOVED chasing down chickens probably more than anything...

Trying to trap them along the fence

Big Golden guy was good with the chicks from the start. He's got a very old soul and innately understands things like being gentle with baby humans and animals alike.

Such a sweet fella!

My full intention is to add a few more chicks to the flock this year. All we have to do to make our lives easier and let the chickens be outside more is either get around to building a chicken run off the end of the coop, or get around to training Fluffball to be a chicken guardian dog. Haha! We'll see....