The first batch of babies this year are getting bigger and bigger. They have feathers instead of fluff and their necks are longer. Instead of little fuzz balls, they are looking like gangly chickens. Their bright yellow color is fading, and the stripes on their wings are more pronounced.

All these changes are in sharp contrast to the six new babies who still have that joyful roundness to them. In their stocktank, all together, they make an interesting dozen. I love that they seem to have all accepted each other willingly, curling up to sleep stretched across each other, under each other, scattered on the make-shift perch I created from a grill grate on top some bricks.

Pulling off the blanket, or reaching your hand down into the tank, causes mass chaos with chicks scattering every direction and loud peeping ensuing. I wonder what their little chicken brains think... the sky is falling, the sky is falling comes to mind :)

A few more days for them to all be together and I will separate out the first batch of babies to graduate into a new cage, all in the grand process of getting them ready for the entrance to the coop with the girls.