About two weeks ago we received our first order of chicks from the hatchery.  When we got them home we realized that twelve of the chicks we ordered weren’t there, it seems the hatchery wasn’t able to hatch enough of this particular chick.  We got a credit with the hatchery and ordered more, I want at least thirty six new chicks for the farm this year so we can up our egg production. Seems there is a demand for farm fresh eggs and I can sell every single egg I produce. In the meantime something was wrong with the chicks that did arrive. In the first two days we lost half of our little flock. They were earing and drinking fine, then they would get lethargic and die within about an hour or so. It was really strange, we aren’t new at this baby chick thing, we’ve been ordering and caring for them for years now and while I expect a few losses early on I had never seen this type of loss. After a quick call to the hatchery (they seemed to think it had to do with stress during shipping, or they got too chilled during shipping) we soon had twelve more chicks added to the order I had placed to replace the chicks that we didn’t receive in the first place (clear as mud?).

This morning I got the call that my chicks were at the post office waiting to be picked up!  When I got them home I added them to the brooder with their big sisters, hoping that it wouldn’t be a problem, sometimes adding new chickens to an established flock can be troublesome, but so far the big sisters are doing great, even letting the little ones huddle under their wings for warmth!

Yay for forty eight new chicks!  I can’t wait for them to start laying this summer!

Little sisters mingling with the big sisters

Little sisters huddling under the big sisters to get warm

My little fluffies exploring the brooder