Jonathan came home on Friday with 8 Production Red chicks and 3 ducklings. Very cute! They’re all in our room for now, but will be moving soon. A nice thing about buying chicks at a local store is that you can buy them a bit older and skip some of the less-than-cute things about newly hatched chicks. We’re guessing the chicks are 2-3 weeks old.

The ducks are probably a couple weeks old as well, but we are learning that ducks are much different than chicks. They are larger and seem further developed… except for their wings, which are tiny at this point. Ducks are more direct in their communication than chicks. The first night, they woke me in the middle of the night with piercing quacks to let me know that they were out of water. They had been extremely shy, but when I got out of bed to check on them, they crowded to the side of the box close to me, prancing and quacking eagerly. The next night, the problem was that they had turned their food bowl into a solid cake of food instead of crumbles. Same routine… they made me feel like I was their best friend when I came to take care of their need. I’ll admit, I didn’t feel much like their best friend; I just wanted them to hush so that I could go back to sleep!

Here’s some pictures of our new fowl: