We have been wanting to have some chickens, but I thought that with two young children under 4, buying week old chicks would give us a few extra benefits. Although they were a similar cost to point of lay chickens (and so we've got to feed them for around 3 months until we start getting a return in terms of eggs), the chicks will grow while the kids are able to be around them.
This afternoon as soon as we got home the chicks were out running around on a rug with the kids watching. Once I put them away, our daughter ran to the table and started drawing pictures to show them! She can't get enough!
Tonight we went a step further too. Our daughter loves a PBS TV show "Sid The Science Kid" where the character learns about growth, charts, observations and heaps of other aspects of science. So, these chicks are now providing a science to our daughter. We weighed the chicks tonight (and will do so weekly) so that we can chart their growth, plus she sat down after and drew pictures of the chicks.
The picture needs a bit of an explanation. The head is on the left. The black mark on the top is a mark that this particular chick has (we're hoping it doesn't grow out as it helps identify it!). The red and purple bit on the left of the legs (in blue) is the container the chick is eating out of. The brown spot at the right at the opposite end of the head is... Well, I guess you will be able to work out what comes out of week old chicks from that end of their body.
