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Monday, July 19, 2010

A Visit from the Stork

On July 8th, at 6:07 A.M., the phone woke Andy and me up. The post office called to tell us our baby chicks had arrived. Groggy, we quickly scrambled downstairs to get a new brooder filled with litter and ready for our day-old-chicks.


When the chicks arrived, I couldn't wait to rip open the box and see my new friends. Our kitties were interested in the chirping cardboard box. 


The waterer has a red plastic bottom, which is recommended because red is the color most easily identified by chicks. We also have a red brooder light; in this case, red is calming for the peepers. Since these chicks were one-day-old when they arrived, the brooder temperature needed to be 95 degrees. With each passing week, the temperature should be 5 degrees lower. Since it has been so hot here, we have not had to have the light on very often.  


One chattered her beak all day long. We finally realized she had never figured out how to drink. I dipped her beak in the waterer several more times, and eventually she got it!

Now the chicks are 1.5 weeks old. We have been playing with them indoors.

Next week, we will start taking them outdoors for some fresh air. We'll also begin handing out treats like meal worms and raisins. There have been no signs of roosterdom so far; here's hoping these are all hens!  We ordered them from My Pet Chicken this time in order to have  more assurance that we'd obtain only ladies this time. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Any suggestions for names?  We are continuing our theme of musician names.

2 comments:

  1. I can't believe you had to go pick up your chicks. Tim is the mailman in Dorchester and any time there are chicks to be delivered, he loads them in his jeep, listens to (and smells) them during his route, and delivers them to their final destination. And he usually had more than 3 in the box. :-)

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  2. We were quite anxious, waiting for our post office to call us. We weren't quite sure what day, so it was a little stressful. Of course, I was very concerned about the little ladies making such a big trip.

    Does he deliver other types of livestock or animals?? We're thinking of getting bees next year. I wonder how that will work.

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