CHICKS, MAN.

Last year we dedided to add hens to our suburban farmlet, but out of 7 out of 9 chicks turned out to be roosters and the two hens succumbed to domestic predators, so we're back to square one with three new chicks from the hatchery. Chicks were surprisingly hard to come by this year. The hatchery was sold out for weeks. Here's Em with the Leghorn.

Here she discovers what chicks do best. Note the brown bit on her shoulder. And now she understands why chicks aren't allowed in the house.

Here are the chicks now, a bit grown up and getting their big girl feathers.

From left to right, we have an Araucana, a Brown Sex Link and a Leghorn. Translation: we'll have blue-green, brown and white eggs.

Their home is a 4x4 apple crate from a local orchard, fitted with a roof, some nesting boxes and perches. $40 for the apple box, $20 for the heat lamp, feeder and waterer and about $20 in hardware plus some more recycled wood from the neighbors' fence and a couple of recycled dowels make this a pretty cheap suburban henhouse.