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Check out these hot chicks!
... sorry, couldn't help myself.
This spring I ordered chicks through the feed store and I got a call yesterday that my chicks were in! They're Ameracaunas, the chickens that lay "colored" eggs (blue and green) -- well, not really purebred, more like mutt chickens with the colored egg trait. Chicks are hatched at nurseries and then shipped to their final destinations, since day-old chicks can go for a day or so without food or water. I wasn't sure if it would just be my 10 chicks in a box, but the feed store had a whole bin of them (they said they'd just gotten six dozen Ameracaunas in) and so they picked out 10 active, healthy chicks in various colors for me.
I grew up on a farm, but our little backyard flock always brooded their own chicks, so I've never raised chicks before, and I think I was half-afraid that they'd all drop dead immediately. But it's been 24 hours since I brought them home and they seem to like their new digs, so ... here they are!
The picture quality is terrible, I'm afraid, because their brooder is on the garage floor with a heat lamp above it. Also, I didn't want to crowd them too much, since they're still a bit stressed from all the upheavals over the last day or two. Which is, admittedly, the only day or two they've been alive. I still can't get over how active they are. I guess I was expecting them to be a little more passive, but they're in constant motion and the Internet says that they'll let me know if they're too cold or too hot by peeping loudly. Which they haven't been, just making little twittering noises, but I heard the loud peeps when they were stuffed into a cardboard box to be transported home, so I know they can do it. I guess they must be happy.
I made the brooder out of (yes, really) an old WWII ammo box. Actually ... if you watched Sanctuary the other night? The box that the autotype was buried in? The chicks are in a box just like that. *g* With a hundred-watt bulb and some random wire mesh that we had laying around. Actually, it's all stuff that we had laying around, which is why it looks like a heap of junk. I used metal items because I was a little bit worried about causing a fire hazard, but that was when I still expected to use a 250-watt heat lamp rather than just the 100-watt bulb, which turned out to be plenty. Newly hatched baby chicks are supposed to be kept at 95 degrees and I wasn't sure if it would be enough. Turns out it's overkill for such a small space. I had to raise it a bit to keep from being too hot underneath.
One more with the mesh off:
Husband commented when he saw them that he wasn't expecting them to look so much like Marshmallow Peeps - just the same shape and size. "I guess they're true to life, then."
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/346318.html with
comments.
This spring I ordered chicks through the feed store and I got a call yesterday that my chicks were in! They're Ameracaunas, the chickens that lay "colored" eggs (blue and green) -- well, not really purebred, more like mutt chickens with the colored egg trait. Chicks are hatched at nurseries and then shipped to their final destinations, since day-old chicks can go for a day or so without food or water. I wasn't sure if it would just be my 10 chicks in a box, but the feed store had a whole bin of them (they said they'd just gotten six dozen Ameracaunas in) and so they picked out 10 active, healthy chicks in various colors for me.
I grew up on a farm, but our little backyard flock always brooded their own chicks, so I've never raised chicks before, and I think I was half-afraid that they'd all drop dead immediately. But it's been 24 hours since I brought them home and they seem to like their new digs, so ... here they are!
The picture quality is terrible, I'm afraid, because their brooder is on the garage floor with a heat lamp above it. Also, I didn't want to crowd them too much, since they're still a bit stressed from all the upheavals over the last day or two. Which is, admittedly, the only day or two they've been alive. I still can't get over how active they are. I guess I was expecting them to be a little more passive, but they're in constant motion and the Internet says that they'll let me know if they're too cold or too hot by peeping loudly. Which they haven't been, just making little twittering noises, but I heard the loud peeps when they were stuffed into a cardboard box to be transported home, so I know they can do it. I guess they must be happy.
I made the brooder out of (yes, really) an old WWII ammo box. Actually ... if you watched Sanctuary the other night? The box that the autotype was buried in? The chicks are in a box just like that. *g* With a hundred-watt bulb and some random wire mesh that we had laying around. Actually, it's all stuff that we had laying around, which is why it looks like a heap of junk. I used metal items because I was a little bit worried about causing a fire hazard, but that was when I still expected to use a 250-watt heat lamp rather than just the 100-watt bulb, which turned out to be plenty. Newly hatched baby chicks are supposed to be kept at 95 degrees and I wasn't sure if it would be enough. Turns out it's overkill for such a small space. I had to raise it a bit to keep from being too hot underneath.
One more with the mesh off:
Husband commented when he saw them that he wasn't expecting them to look so much like Marshmallow Peeps - just the same shape and size. "I guess they're true to life, then."
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/346318.html with