A couple of readers commented on my last post about the fun of watching our chicks grow. Those comments reminded me and my husband of the fun flock we had in 2017 so I thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of them.
That year we had 10 buff orpington chicks, the same breed we have this year. We have found this breed to be the friendliest and most social of any of the chickens we have had.
In the pictures below I think they are about 10 weeks old. My husband was ready with the camera because he knew what I was in for. He had the same experience the previous evening.
As I sat outside the coop watching the flock (an activity otherwise known as chicken TV) and waiting for them to go in for the night, a couple of the young ones decided to join me.
Then a couple more. I didn’t mind them sitting on me, but I knew I needed to protect my eyes.
I suddenly became the star of the show and before it was all done, I had all 10 young hens sitting on me while my husband took pictures and I laughed hysterically.
Then one of the hens decided that my husband’s shoulder was the place to be as he was trying to teach them to use the ramp to get into the coop.
Throughout the summer, when we would sit near the coop in the evenings three or four of these hens would come and sit on our laps, and on the nights that we did not “watch chicken TV” one of these hens would wait outside until we showed up to pick her up and put her in the coop at night.
Thinking about that group makes me wonder what fun we will have with this next group. I think it’s gonna be a fun summer. 🙂
I was thinking about planting more but maybe I’ll just let them multiply on their own.
We moved the chicks to their new (transitional) housing yesterday. They are beginning to feather out but still require supplemental heat from the heat lamp. They will need to be in this hutch for a while as they would likely not survive at the farm with the cool temperatures we are still having.
It took them a while to adjust to their new home. (Check out their guardian angel beagle in the background.)
Eventually they began exploring and found their food and water. They also seem a bit curious about the outside world.
If a stork delivers human babies, could we deduce that a stork delivers baby chicks as well?
It was yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, March 21, when I received an email from Townline Hatchery where we had ordered our chicks. It looked like this:
ALMOST READY!
Please allow 24 hours for most tracking updates.
I immediately clicked on the tracking # and learned that at 3:28 P.M. a shipping label had been created.
Since the hatchery is less than two-hour drive from our home, I assumed our bundle would arrive today, so I continued to check the USPS (United Stork Postal Service???) tracking number for updates. Here is the route and timeline the stork service took to deliver our bundle of 28 chicks.
3:56 P.M. accepted at USPS office in Zeeland, MI
5:11 P.M. arrived at USPS Regional facility in Grande Rapids, MI. Estimated delivery was before 9:00 P.M. on 3/23/23 *Note they are going in the wrong direction as Grand Rapids is to the west of Zeeland while we are to the east. Apparently, Storks don’t adhere to ‘as the crow flies”.
That was the last update before I went to bed last night.
When I got up, way too early, this morning there was another update.
3/22 12:20 A.M. arrived at USPS Regional facility in Pontiac, MI *at least they are now traveling in the right direction*
Then:
6:59 A.M. arrived at our local USPS office.
7:10 A.M. Out for delivery *This was a bit disturbing as it was my understanding that we would have to pick up our bundle at the local office. We didn’t want them riding around in the stork mobile for half the day when we could bring them home and assure that they were warm and well. I tried calling the office but only got a message that they were not open yet.”
8:39 A.M. My phone rang. A terse voice said, “you have chicks at the post office.” I asked if they could be picked up now and which door to go to, and my husband was on his way out the door as I hung up the phone.
9:00 A.M. my husband returned home with our bundle of peepers.
Awww! So cute and so many peep, peep, peeps… I noticed black spots on the heads of a few of them and was a bit concerned because buff orpington chicks, the breed we ordered, are solid yellow. I then realized that the three with black marks on their head were the roosters we ordered, and the hatchery had thoughtfully marked them so we could identify them.
For some reason I thought that we had only ordered 18 chicks (getting old or something). After we had them in their new home, I began trying to get a beak count (not easy as they were all moving around) and quickly realized that we had way more than 18. When I looked up my receipt from the hatchery, I discovered that we had ordered 28 chicks – 25 pullets (females) and 3 roosters.
Since they were continually moving around I didn’t a full count until I saw the picture below.
We got all 28 +1= 29! Feel free to count for yourself but I have counted them at least 6 times and keep counting 29.
Ranger was quite excited to see the babies. He has checked them out several times during the day. I wish you could see how fast his tail is wagging as he watches them. It’s so funny. He did bark at them a couple times which sent the whole flock into a tizzy, but he seems to have gotten over the need to do that. We are a bit surprised that Ruby has not paid them any attention as of yet. I guess she will just meet them when she is ready.
There was a moment of hesitation when my husband asked if I would make devils food cupcakes for dessert on Saturday. Normally I am happy to make whatever he asks for, but when I saw that the cake mix called for three eggs, I had to check our egg supply. I found only four eggs in the refrigerator so I told him that I would make the cupcakes if the chickens gave us a couple more eggs that day. I didn’t want to sacrifice my breakfast eggs for cupcakes.
Since I really wanted to fulfill his request, I turned to the internet to see what I might be able to substitute for eggs in a cake recipe. I learned that there are many things that can be used in place of eggs in a cake recipe and with eggs prices as high as they are I thought some of you might find this information useful as well.
Since I still had homemade applesauce in our pantry from last year’s crop, I decided to use it in place of two of the eggs in the recipe – 1/4 cup for each egg.
These cupcakes came out super moist and delicious (sorry I didn’t take any pictures of them). I think I will make this a regular practice.
Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care 