The call came in at 6:00 AM this morning. Our chicks were at our post office ready for pick up. They had flown in overnight from Iowa. So Tom went to pick them up while I got the supplies ready. He also dropped off a package of yarn to be mailed.
It made me appreciate what a life line our post office (and the whole postal service) is for us. We get animals supplies that are not available locally mailed in. We mail our farm products out, recently wool fleeces and yarn. We love our Bow Post Office, and the folks that work there.
Here are the chicks, arrived safe and sound. The heat lamps are on, the water warmed up, and fresh newspaper and feed out for them. This is Tom dipping their beaks in water for their first drink.
And now they are in their new home. We ordered 25 Barred Rocks, 11 White Wyandottes, 11 Buff Orpingtons, and 11 Araucanas. They added a bonus exotic chick, it looks like we might have a crested one. They are mixed genders so some will grow up to be our layer hens and some will grow up to become chicken dinner. Our experiment last fall with hatching our own chicks did not turn out well. We ended up with mostly roosters. As several of our resident roosters are Phoenix, these chickens will not make a good dinner. So we went back to ordering purebred chicks. I am thinking about housing our best rooster with our best hens in the future to hatch better chickens for ourselves and not having to rely on the distant hatchery. But for now, we will enjoy raising their chicks and ultimately the food they produce.
Lamb (or Fat Sheep) Watch Day 19: no new lambs. Chronic sleep deprivation and irritability setting in.
That is a lot of chicks! Amazing that they can be delivered in the mail. I read somewhere that the rooster to hen ratio is like 1-2 in nature.
It is a lot of chicks! That ratio is probably because the roosters kill each other.
Glad to hear that all your “peeps” arrived safely. Baby chicks are almost (but not quite) as cute as lambs. We are waiting, waiting, waiting here too!
Hopefully we won’t have chicks this summer…we had some unexpected ones here last year. Three hens got broody, and went into hiding…each emerged with a dozen chicks! Happily we found homes for all of them (well, we kept two little pullets…how could we not?)
Thanks Lois! The lamb waiting games continues. We have had unexpected chicks too but not as many as you had.
Every time I’ve gone to the post office recently (for other packages – my PO seems unable to deliver anything larger than a magazine to my home) I hear chicks peeping (stress peeps) in the back. It always makes me want to go back there and get them (maternal thing) and get them fed/watered/warm. I haven’t ordered hatchery chicks in years but am looking at ordering some ducklings this year from Holderread; with all this rain and mud, they’d surely be happier fowl for most of the year. I have a friend who wants to sell me some turkeys; I’m still considering it. 😉
Our chicks continue to do well after their journey. I got ducklings from a long time ago, and I still have their descendants. We had issues with turkeys in that they kept trying to kill each other and our tom tried to breed other animals ( like donkeys). I doubt we will get more turkeys.
I love that call from the Post Office. We order chicks in the fall so they start laying in the spring. But ever year I end up with a few chicks from our feed mill b/c I have such chick envy! Last year we bought 6 Americanas. This year I heard he will have Welsummer chicks next week…..Enjoy your cuties!
Stevie@ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com
Thanks Stevie! I love that call too. It is full of anticipation and excitement. Tom was not so thrilled since he is so tired from lambing. We hatched our chicks last fall, but it was so cold I really worried about them. So I decided to go back to Spring chicks. Less anxiety. We have some Welsummer hens. I love those eggs! Have fun with your chicks. Definitely spring is here!