![They Found the Water](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5217/5454329187_75142a5eaf.jpg)
Day 1: There are ten new hearts beating in my home. Welcome, little ones!
![Our New Peeps](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5053/5454325453_0e728e139c.jpg)
Day 2: My goodness they are noisy! They really do say “peep, peep.” They are little balls of fluff. So awesome and adorable! They fall asleep in our hands when we hold them.
Day 3: Our boys got to show their babies to some friends. They are doing great! The peeps sleep often, but wake so easily. They are pecking at each other’s eyes and beaks, but they don’t seem to be causing any harm.
Day 4: Our baby peeps are practicing their chicken behaviors. Today they are scratching and pecking in their litter and they are only about five days old. They also have rapidly growing wing feathers!
Day 4: The little ones nap a lot during the day. But now it’s evening and they are peeping up a storm! Pipe down, baby chickens! It’s sleeping time.
![Fuzzy Ameraucana Chick Under the Heat Lamp](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5300/5467109776_b1c4f6c603.jpg)
We have come to call this one Chestnut; she is a fuzzy Ameraucana. Eventually, she will lay green or blue eggs.
![Wing Feathers](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5140/5467111956_469ec2de06.jpg)
Day 5: Five days into raising baby chicks, we still have all ten. (Phew!) They are growing so fast and they all have beautiful small wing feathers now! They didn’t have these when we first go them last Thursday, February 17. And for the record, cleaning baby chicken butts ranks right up there among the weirdest things I’ve ever done. It must be done or they can die from “pasting up.” Yeah, it’s just as icky as it sounds.
Day 6: The hot topic of conversation on the Tuesday morning of a week off school is what to name our ten baby chicks. We can finally tell the two from each breed apart, except for the two yellow Buff Orpingtons, whom I think of as “the Twins.” Under consideration are the following names: Chestnut, Dawn. Lightning, Moonlight, Sunshine, Buttercup, Storm, Thunder, Summer, and Firefly. These names would go so nicely with our hens Sunrise, Fireball, Snowdrift, Avalanche, and Midnight, don’t ya think?
![Precocious Dawn](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5020/5472796978_ec4216418b.jpg)
Day 6: Wowza! One chick, Dawn (above), was found this evening perched on the top edge of the brooder box! It’s time to rig up that top to keep them inside. A crocheted blanket clipped onto the box with binder clips will do nicely for now.
![Lightning](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5097/5472781954_9656133195.jpg)
Lightning, a Light Brahma
![Buttercup and Sunshine](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/5472231083_f0e6398739.jpg)
Sunshine and Buttercup, the two Buff Orpingtons; we may never be able to tell these two apart!
![Lightning and Moonlight](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5140/5489805416_03882067dd.jpg)
Day 7: Now I see tail feathers coming in!
Day 9: The chicks are now so active in their plastic tote brooder box that their watering device is constantly getting clogged with the littler they scratch up. I’ve gotten up at 3 a.m. the last two nights to clean it out so they have access to drinking water. The heat lamp is very hot and they drink a lot! Better litter must be purchased.
![Moonlight](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5173/5489808614_2e616f2cd9.jpg)
Day 9: They fly.
![New Lid on Brooder Box](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/5489215181_650a83c621.jpg)
Day 11: “Sara, the chicks are now having [unassisted] out-of-box experiences,” Ian reported. Moonlight flew up and out of the box, and then couldn’t figure out where she was or where everybody went. Ian rigged up a chicken wire box top to keep them inside.
Day 12: All of the babies now have fancy epaulets on their shoulders, like feathered generals.
Day 13: My goodness the chicks are active now—and fast! They are also easily about twice their original, just-hatched size. Firefly, a Welsummer, is still littlest. The two Welsummers have stripes down their backs like chipmunks.