No, they didn't come with the property, though a lovely chicken house does, which is what allowed us to bite the bullet and order some chicks. We've wanted chickens for several years, and were thrilled to be able to order some It was the very end of the season - the last week they shipped out chicks, actually.
The chicks were shipped on Wednesday and didn't arrive at the post office till Saturday, which is longer than the hatchery would prefer. Three of them did not survive shipping. Here they are arriving home on Nov. 22:
They grow amazingly fast. By Nov. 30, a couple hopped/flew out of the baby pool, and they were up to all sorts of crazy antics like hopping on top of the feeder (maybe he was trying to tell us to refill it?):
So we raised the sides of our "brooder" to help contain them:
And they're still growing - here they are today, a humorous mixture of down and feathers:
We don't know yet what kinds of chickens they are. We ordered a batch of Assorted Heavy Breeds, which means they sent us at least 5 different breeds from their list of heavies. We got a straight run, which means they didn't determine sex, they just sent us 25. So we'll see how many roosters and how many layers we have once they get older. The majority (if not all) of the roosters will be butchered eventually, and we're hopeful we can convince the hens to lay during the winter. We'll see how it goes!
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2 comments:
Goodness! You are much braver than I am!
Brave or crazy? Time will tell... ;-)
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