"No, Maddie.... the chicks don't want to play with your toys!"

The new brooder box/chicken condo is up and running. We moved Maddie's play kitchen into her bedroom and now have the chicks next to our kitchen table.....not my most favorite place for them to be, but I am obsessive about changing their bedding once a day, so they don't smell and it's excellent entertainment! They LOVE their new home, well as far as I can tell from their increased chicken antics. They run around and chase each other and jump on each other and get on top of the mason jar that holds their food. This should hold us up until they can go outside in their real coop once they can handle the temperatures which should be in about 5 weeks. It's amazing how fast they grow. We've only had our chicks for a week and a day and they are at least twice the size. Their feathers are growing in, their legs are getting long.....I was watching them this afternoon and realized that their legs look like little drumsticks. I hadn't noticed before because they were so little and their legs were short and tucked up. I guess I sound dumb though because of course they would look like drumsticks.....I just hadn't really thought of them as the same chickens that are food, because they are our pets. I know, I'm weird.

Maddie is having a lot of fun with being able to see the chickies anytime she wants to because they are now on the floor. Unfortunately for them, she wants to share her toys with them and has so far dropped in a plastic potato, an Isa the iguana figurine and the round dick that goes in the middle of a canning lid. She has also read them a story from one of her books......I think its a pretty fair trade off, but the chicks might disagree with me, falling objects and all.

Every day they look more and more like grown chickens. Right now I think they are in that awkward preteen stage where they are funny looking and don't quite fit into their growing bodies. Another weird thing.....I know that our chickens are hens, thus they are female, but for some reason I always refer to them as boys. I guess it doesn't really make a difference, but I find it very strange. In my head chickens must be dudes. Regardless of their gender they are fun little guys and very entertaining!

Tysons new favorite thing to do:
Sit and watch the chicks

Hopefully he's not thinking......Dinner!

And because I am weird....here are 3 weird photo editing techniques I tried out. Hmmm.......