Yes, the baby chicks hatched and we got "the call" Saturday around lunchtime. Good thing we had already bought feeders, a warming light and a waterer when we were gathering pig supplies a few days ago. After putting the huge tub in the back of my car (the chicks temporary home) we took off for the farmer's place.
It was great fun picking out the chicks we wanted and we came home with 4 guinea hens (they are more of a protector breed that squawks to warm the other hens of imminent danger) and 21 Buff Orpingtons. The Buffs are a great laying hen and are very gentle in nature. Once they are fully grown, they will be clothed in a full layer of rusty red feathers and cluck-cluck around your feet as you approach them.
After we brought the tub into the house the guys set it down on the kitchen floor so the dogs could "inspect" the contents. Winston wasn't very interested, but Molly was just dying to get in the tub and romp around with her new cousins. Some of the chicks hatched on Thursday and the rest on Friday and Saturday. It's amazing how much they grow in a single day and it was very easy to tell which ones had hatched first because they were already larger than their sisters(or brothers).
So Joel and Jeremy hauled the chicks out to the enclosed front porch where we could keep an eye on them for the next couple of weeks and keep them safe from predators. In the meantime we need to predator proof their new coop out by the main garden. You'll see more on that later this week. Aaaahhhhhh......that heat lamp feels good. They all huddled in one large mass under the warmth of the light.
Aren't they cute? At least I think they are at this stage of the game. The dark striped ones are the guinea hens. Some of the chicks would actually fall asleep standing up and their little heads would droop and suddenly they'd pop back up again. The three of us just sat and watched their antics for almost an hour. "Cheap" entertainment......ha ha! Better get used to the goofy jokes now, folks.
At first they pecked at their wood chip filled home. But then I filled up their waterer and after a short while one chick discovered it, and then two, and then ten and pretty soon they all knew where to get a cool drink and they were tumbling over one another to take a sip.
The same thing happened when I filled up their feeder with chick feed. Aren't they just the cutest? They're so nice and soft and fluffy at this stage. But wait a few weeks. They get kinda ugly as teenagers until they fill out with all their feathers.
Yum. Belly up to the buffet. It didn't take them long to figure out where the food was. And boy are they ever going thru it fast! Last night we caught a couple of the chicks trying to hop over the top of the tub and make a dash for freedom. Yikes! We'll be picking up some hardware cloth this morning to place over the tub to keep them in place for a while longer. There's always something new for us to learn. We should have thought about that sooner.
Well, we're off to the store again. I guess I'll have to snap some pics each week so you can see how fast these little cuties grow up.
Till then,
Debbie
