They came in this box. All 80 of them snuggled together to stay warm.
Michael constructed a pen for them in his shop. We will keep them in there for awhile until we are certain that the weather will stay warm enough for them and that they are strong enough to go in the outside coop. Having them downstairs also makes it easier to care for them for the first few days. 
We mixed up sugar water to give them a boost and help get them started. I put one third heaping cup of sugar to a quart of water. This should help them gain the energy that was lost during the shipping process. On another farm note, Angel, the house lamb, spent her first night outside. She woke me up crying at about 3:00 a.m. She didn't stop crying until sometime after 5:00 a.m. Did I mention that having a farm can cause loss of sleep???? Not to worry though, I do enjoy a good cup of java...and today I am sure I will enjoy several!
grace and peace,
julie
9 comments:
AWWWWW they are so darn cute at this age you know?? I like adult chickens as well so maybe I am just goofy, LOL
Hugs
Amy
Those little fluffy chicks are so cute.
I most gosh! I love it! They're the cutest little balls of fluff! Poor Angel...
Who knew that you could mail baby chicks? This put a smile on my face & my heart melted when you heard them chirp from the post office. They are soooo sweet looking! Will they grow to be white or yellowish?
thank you for storey's guide.i'll purchase for each animal. question, how do you'll clean your chickens and do you allow them to season in cooler or what before you eat them? my only exp with cleaning was long time ago and i remember the smell and i can't seem to get past that smell but i have to do something cause all i eat is free range or pastured meat. thank youuuuuu
Aww those chickies are adorable!
We just got our first baby in January- a kitten named Finnigan. He woke me up at 4:45 this morning! I'm a morning person, but not THAT early! I figure he's good prep for motherhood!
Amy Ellen,
I like adult chickens better than baby ones so I guess I am odd too!
Dreamer,
they are cute and LOUD. The shop is right under our bedroom so we hear them often. It was a bit distracting to go to sleep last night with all the chirping, but I managed.
Paige,
Angel isn't very happy about the situation, but alas it was time for her to be a real lamb instead of a house lamb. yesterday she kept coming up the stairs on the deck and looking into the doors. It was hard not to grab her and bring her back in the house!
TxDoodler,
Mailing baby chicks has it ups and downs. You know you are going to lose a few due to the stress of shipping. Our chicks were delayed an extra day and this has caused much loss. Chicks can go up to 2 days without water when they are first hatched, but longer than that isn't good. The post office didn't get them to us on time so our chicks were very stressed. The hatchery will replace the lost ones, but it is still sad to see nonetheless. We ordered a variety of breeds. Our order was 50 meat birds (soft yellow looking ones). They will be all white when they are grown. We order bard rocks, buff orpingtons, pearl white layers, arachannas, which are dark now and will lay colored eggs, and Rhode Island Reds.
Kay,
Butchering chickens is NOT fun in my book. I am thinking about taking the 4 year old on butchering day and heading to Cheri's! I am sure my husband would have something to say about that. You are right about the smell. We did it all outside so that helped a lot. I am squimish so this ins't my cup of tea. All but one of our kids are fine with the butchering process. The other kid is the great white hunter in our family and he doesn't even like to clean what he hunts, but Michael makes him. When the birds are cleaned, we sit them in a refrigerator to age, and then we freeze them. The meat was very good. My husband says grocery store chicken upsets his stomach, but our chickens didn't bother him a bit. Must be the chemicals or something that doesn't set well with his stomach.
Andrea Cheri,
Animals are a great way to get ready for being a momma. Before we had children, I valued sleep much more. Now, I still like to have uninterupted sleep, but I can manage with being woke up in the middle of the night just fine. Hope you enjoy your new "baby"!
grace and peace,
julie
michael is so right!! i can tell you what store (wal mart, publix or winn dixie) you bought your meat from when cooking because they all used different formula's in their hormones and antibiotics.
now how long did you keep in fridge before you froze them. i had a suspicion that is what should have been done and maybe they would not have been so strong. do you skin or pluck and do you have a separate fridge that you keep meats in that you are aging? did you get all that info from storeys?
Kay,
To the best of my memory, we did get all the information from Storey's Guide. I don't recall all the details of the butchering. I do know that we had a seperate refrigerator cleaned out in the shop to put the chickens in. We choose to pluck our chickens. I like to have the skin on for cooking purposes. It is a lot of work to pluck them though. We also bag our chickens whole for the freezer. I bought a good pair of kitchen shears and I learned how to cut them up myself. If I wanted fried chicken, I would thaw out the whole chicken and cut it up in the desired pieces. I am not always the best at cutting up chicken so sometimes we had odd looking pieces, but it worked.
grace and peace,
julie
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