Chick Stories...

I hinted last week in a quick post that we lost some of our chicks. In all, we lost 5, so we were left with 5. It was very difficult for me to lose them. Not because of the attachment (that I was trying so hard to avoid) but because some of them suffered. And because I was so excited to start this new project and it seemed that in a matter of seconds it all changed after so much time and effort.

B and I decided to look for a few more chicks after this because we did want to have at least 15 laying hens by the end of everything. So, yesterday we finally found a guy that was selling some (we were told that TSC only took orders and they had to be 25 or more, so we didn't bother going there) and went to pick them up. Of course, we get there and we are talking to the guy and B asks, "So, how do you tell when they are a male or female?" "When they get older," the guy replies. Uh. So, it turns out, we weren't getting 10 guaranteed females...just 10 chicks and you get what you get. I'm crossing my fingers at least 5 are females. We don't have much use for lots of males...although we did get a rooster when we went to this place, who we have named Elvis, and when I get a picture of him, you will see why.

I come home today and B surprises me by telling me that he went to TSC and guess what? They had chicks for sale even though we were told they didn't sell them individually. He got 10 more. And he knows they are females. We would have just gone there in the first place had we known that they had them for sale and never worried about the 10 unknowns! :) So, now we are up 20 chicks to replace 5 that we lost. How did that happen? We must be becoming chicken farmers...I am still excited about raising chickens, and have come to quite enjoy it. I'm crossing my fingers that we have learned enough to keep these little ones alive and well.

Here are pics of the new chicks. The black ones, gray ones, brown one in the middle and brown one on the right are unknowns. The light chicks and the one on the left are from TSC.

These ones are my favorite. We have two little grey ones that look like this. They are feather footed, and actually what our rooster is. I think they are just adorable.

Apparently, the new little ones think it is appropriate to lie entirely in the food for whatever reason... And the funniest part of the whole experience...we were trying to figure out the whole sexing the chick thing, not realizing that you had to do it when they were a day old. So...here is B, trying to squeeze the poo out to see if he can tell if it is a male or female. Haha.

Want to take a few guesses at how many will end up female and how many male?