Gettin' Dusty

Coraline enjoying her "dust" bath. She's in the food dish.


After her dust bath she was content to lounge in the dish.

Hi everybody, (if anybody). It's already 3 weeks into our journey of becoming backyard chicken raisers. The chicks are growing at an alarming rate! I have to reacquaint myself with them each time I see them for feeding and water changing.

They have been on medicated mash from the start and we have introduced the six of them to live foods such as small crickets and meal worms. It is hilarious to watch them running away and into each other, worm in beaks, each engaged in their own private game of keep away. They bring out the kid in me and I find myself getting lost in their little world in the Rubbermaid bin they have graduated into.

Just the other day after cleaning the food dish and refilling it with fresh mash, our little buff Cochin, Coraline, laid down in the middle of the dish and had herself a "dust" bath. Food flew everywhere, and the other chicks were pecking the chick food that was sprinkled on her downy feathers all over her back. Coraline just stayed in the bowl despite the pecking, loving every second.

Today we introduced a new food bowl with round openings for the chicks to peck at the food without being able to walk in it (or scratch all the food out which they've started doing too).