Chicken Day!!!!!!!!!

At 4:16 PM yesterday afternoon I became the proud mother to these eight little ladies...

Lets just say I am in love.



The chicken lady (Cindy) at the farm store called me yesterday afternoon and told me that my chickens were in and could be picked up anytime. When Jon got out of school at 4:00 we went straight to the store to get them. I was SO excited, I felt like a little kid right before Christmas-- which was fun because it has been along time since I've felt like that! Cindy got our chicks out of the brooders (where they were with about 300 other chicks and turkeys) and put them in this cardboard "Happy Meal" (that is what it looked like) box for us to take home. I didn't end up getting the Silkies or the Frizzles (sob) because they don't hatch till the end of April (double sob) and it is really hard to mix chickens of different ages-- an established flock doesn't take kindly to new additions. So instead I was going to get Marans-- which lay really really dark brown eggs, but when we got to the store Cindy told me that the Marans didn't hatch out and wouldn't come until the end of April. So we decided just to get two other types they had extras of-- a Buff Orington and a Barred Rock. I'll have to try Silkies next year. I'm over my disappointment and am really excited about these new types we got. In fact, I was just thrilled to finally be getting chickens! I was almost giddy. I tell you it was like being six years old again.



Me with the best "Happy Meal" box I've ever gotten in my whole life. Except the chicken in this box was a bit more wiggly than the type you get at McDonald's.



We got the little girls home and put them in their super duper fancy cardboard chicken box in our basement. They seemed to like it right off and immediately began to peck and explore each other. Chickens establish a "pecking order" (yep that is where the phrase comes from) of authority from a very young age, and these chicks wasted no time. Actually, the reason they are under a red heat lamp is because if one of the chicks gets pecked and starts to bleed then the other ones will peck it to death, but if the light is red they can't see the blood and won't peck at each other mercilessly.



It took us a few attempts to get the heat to the right temperature, they need it at about 90 degrees because they don't have feathers yet-- just fluff.



They have such personalities already, there is one who is a HUGE bully and I think has already worked her way to the top of the pecking order. One who is super lazy, in fact we thought she was sick or something because she just laid on the ground all the time. She would even lay right in front of the feeder and eat instead of standing up like everyone else. But we've discovered that she isn't sick, just a snoozer-- so that is what we call her. There is also one who likes to jump and will hurdle the other chickens to get where she wants to go. I'm sure they will all develop more personality as they get older. We could spend hours, and have, just watching them and laughing. They are such cute babies.





Asher is fascinated by them. He doesn't understand that he needs to be soft with them and sometimes he gets too rambunctious. Actually, one of the very first things he did when we got them in their box was to throw a rock in a them-- I think he thought he was sharing it with them! It is fun to see his face light up whenever they are around, and how he tries to make chirping noises back at them.







Oh, really... I am in love. Every once in awhile as I'm doing other things in the house I'll hear one of them chirp and I get happy tingly feeling just thinking that I have a box full of little chicks in my basement. They have been so much fun and I can't wait till they get bigger and start laying eggs! I kind of feel like a new mother again, because I am always worrying about them and have to go and check on them at least every hour or so-- you know-- just to make sure they are still breathing. Jon got some great shots of one of the chicks (Goldilocks) trying to jump out my hands. She nearly did too! These really aren't the most flattering pictures of me, but well... no excuses sometimes you just don't look your best :) But the chick sure is cute!







Stay tuned.
I'm sure there will be more adventures later:)