There is a reason why everyone loves going to the petting zoo. It’s to pet the tiny animals. It has a healing effect on our souls.  God created us with this incredible ability to bond with animals and have this desire to nurture them. Some people have that ability more than others. My daughter Brielle is one who connects easily to animals. Especially chickens. We found this out after we incubated our first batch of chicks. By the time we gave those 6 week old chicks to their new owners they were following her around everywhere and riding on her shoulder as though they were parrots. I have never seen such a thing! Their new owners say these chickens are now the most social chickens they own and they still like sitting on shoulders like parrots.

Brielle with one of the chicks from our first incubation- we incubated Rhode Island Reds.

Our newest batch of chickens hatched this past weekend. We incubated silkies this round and we are thrilled with these adorable little chicks! We ended up with four Silkies, all in different colors too!  Here is the link to the article I wrote about our incubation of these silkies- We are Incubating Silkies!

These silkie chicks are already attached to Brielle in just a matter of days. Her favorite is the smallest, which is a black Silkie named Cautro. It’s actually Charlie’s chicken, but he doesn’t seem to have the same knack of bonding with the chicks as Brielle. His version of gentle is Brielle’s version of roughest she can be. In other words, he is not gentle in the least which makes the chicks run from him and toward Brielle. Alex is good with the chicks, but his level of interest in them is the same as my Dad’s. No interest. Although my Dad grew up on a farm in Wisconsin with lots of chickens and he said to me “why on earth would you want chickens?” Lol, because they are cute, Brielle loves them, it’s good for my surbuban kids to experience caring for animals, they lay eggs, and they are less work than owning a dog.

Since these chicks have hatched Brielle spends hours every day holding and playing with them. They are adorable! I enjoy holding them too. You can set them on the ground after holding them and they will run right back to you and try to crawl back into your lap to be held more. Such a fun and affectionate breed of chickens! No wonder they are called the “lap dog of chicken breeds”. 

These chicks weigh only a few ounces each. They are little balls of fluff. They got their notoriety when Marco Polo wrote about them in his travel journals while in China. He said they were chickens who had fur. It is their distinctive fluffy feathers that make them stand out from other breeds. They are also known as probably the friendliest of all chicken breeds. If you are looking for backyard chickens that are good with kids and are more social creatures, then definitely look into silkies! They lay eggs, but they are slightly smaller than average because the chickens themselves are smaller than average size. The adult silkies can weigh as little as 18 ounces. They truly are all fluff! Here is a great website with more info on silkies if you are interested in learning more about this breed: http://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/silkie-chickens.html

Here are more photos of our silkies that I took today. They are 3-4 days old.