We ordered a variety pack of brown egg layers from the hatchery this time . It's kind of like a grab-bag; you get the odd bird or two left over from other orders. They are all first quality birds but it's fun to have a variety of breeds in the flock. We look forward to guessing, as they grow a little older, what breeds we have.
The phone call from the Post Office came while DH and I were out doing morning chores. As I came in the house to put the milk in the fridge, I heard the phone ringing but could not get to it fast enough to pick up. We knew the ETA on the chicks was this morning and so assumed they had arrived. The peeps are LOUD and the folks at the Post Office are happy to have them picked up.
After chores were done, DD and I hopped in the car for the drive into town. We saw a flock of wild turkeys in a nearby field.
The Post Office was still closed but we knocked on the back door and the postal employee brought the chicks out right away.
It's hard to believe there are 25 chicks in such a small box. Twenty-five is the minimum order on chicken peeps. This is so there are enough packed into the box so they can huddle together to keep warm until they arrive at their new home.
When we got home with the peeps, the dogs were convinced we had brought them some yummy, warm doggie snacks. We had to push Jack out of the front seat. He was eager to investigate the new smells and sounds coming from the box.
The day before the chicks were to arrive, we had gotten the brooder box out of the barn where it had been stored after the last batch of peeps. The chickens had been using it to roost on at night so it needed a fair bit of cleaning. We pulled out the bag of chick starter food we'd bought at the feed mill and I scrubbed the feeder and waterer.
The chicks will be kept in the basement for the first two weeks. It's nice and warm down there right now because of the wood stove. I was hoping it would be warm enough for them without a heat lamp but when I checked the thermometer in the brooder box, the temperature was only 78 degrees. We use a red light in our heat lamp instead of a white light. Apparently the deeper color reduces the chicks pecking each other.
We lined the brooder box with newspaper and then covered the floor with straw. The peeps cannnot be kept on only newspaper because they need a non-slippery surface to walk on; otherwise their little legs and feet may not develop properly. DS and DD brought them over one by one and I dipped their little beaks into the water.
They caught on quickly. The little cinnamon-colored one, in the photo above, planted one leg in the water and one leg in the straw and just drank and drank. The hatchery said these chicks hatched on Wednesday. They were delivered Friday morning. Peeps can live for two days without food or water but must be watered as soon as possible after they arrive.
It's nice to hear their little cheep, cheep, cheeps coming from the basement and we look forward to watching them grow!
those chicks are so cute!! my landlord also has chickens for eggs. they run all over the property (which is pretty big as it used to be a farm). it's fun to see them and their chicks. it is kind of crazy to think of them coming in the mail. that's a nice box to open. =) - carla
ReplyDeleteRed lights are very important when large numbers of chickens are run together, free range, in an enclosed barn or other confined area. When I lived at home and Dad had thousands of chickens in the barn we would get the occasional chicken that was being half eaten up by other chickens. So Dad found out about the red lights and those are what we used from then on. If a chicken still was being picked on Dad kept a can of black roof pitch on the shelf along with a paint stick. We would catch the chicken and smear black pitch on it's butt. Between the red lights and the pitch the others stopped pecking and it wasn't long until tail feathers started growing again. Apparently chickens are turned on when they see blood. Dad
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