Chickens are Here!

My chickens are here! They are cute as can be and I am wasting countless moments watching them. They actually came last week. I got a call from the post office in El Paso on Tuesday morning advising me that they were there. I told them I was 200 miles away and wondered why they didn’t put them on the truck to my town. They said there was a sticker on the box that said to call immediately. I suggested that notice was for my local post office, not the dispatch center. We finally agreed that they would put the chicks on the truck the next day. Knowing I would be busy and basically stuck at home when they got here I rushed off to run my errands.

I was at the lumberyard buying lumber for my coop, a portable run and some raised beds when I got a call from my local post office, advising me that the chicks had arrived! Evidently there was a later truck from El Paso and my chicks were on it. I unloaded my lumber, dropped off the borrowed truck and raced to the post office to pick up my chicks. They are so cute! In case you don’t know, chicks are shipped via U.S. Mail the day they are born. Newborn chicks ingest the yolk from their eggs and can live for three days or so without any additional food and water. Most hatcheries require that you order at least 25 chicks. I ordered mine from My Pet Chicken, who allows you to order as few as three chicks, depending upon where you live. My ten little babies were shipped in this box. The white thing is a heat pack and the green stuff is a sort of food.





I ordered 3 standard-sized chickens – two Silver Spangled Hamburgs and one Red sex link – so called because their color is genetically linked to their gender. Chickens are difficult to sex and so sex link chickens make that job easier. I also got seven bantam breeds, which are a sort of miniature chicken. I ordered 2 Golden Sebrights, 2 black-tailed, white Japanese and 3 buff Brahmas. I paid extra to have them all be female. Hatcheries generally guarantee 90% accuracy on their sexing. Hens do not need a rooster in order to lay eggs, they only need a rooster in order to lay fertilized eggs. I live in town and don’t really want a crowing rooster in my backyard so I’ve got my fingers crossed! If I do end up with a rooster I’ll have to re-home him.



(Buff Brahma bantam (ltop) and Golden Sebright (bottom). Brahma's are as yet unnamed. Sebrights are named Renee and Natalie after the twin daughters of a friend of mine who share the chicken's birthday. They're so honored!)


(Silver Spangled Hamburg (top) and Red sex link (bottom). Hamburgs are named Paisley and Polka Dot and the sex link is cleverly named Red.)


(Black-tailed White Japanese bantams. Mine are named Peep and Whitey. White chickens start off as yellow chicks. Peep is my tiniest chick and looks like the mashmallow candy and Whitey is, well, currently whiter than Peep.)

All ten chicks seemed healthy and happy upon arrival. Unfortunately, after a few days one of the Brahmas developed an issue with her legs that left her unable to walk. After 60 hours of hand feeding and watering her I realized she was never going to get better and was forced to cull her. That was difficult but is part-and-parcel of raising poultry, or any sort of livestock.

You have to keep the chickens in a brooder setup for the first few weeks. In my case, the brooder consists of an appliance box, laid on its side with the top cut off, bottom covered with small animal litter and then puppy pads to aid in keeping the brooder clean. A feeder, waterer, heat lamp and a branch complete the setup. I change the pads twice a day, plus giving them fresh food and water. My brooder is in my sitting room and, after a week, there is no smell and they’ve been no trouble.

Although I had high hopes of the dog becoming Chicken Pug, Defender of the Flock, so far chicken appears to be the operative word in that title. He is scared of the little peepers and will have nothing to do with them! Perhaps they will eventually reach an accord.

Tuesday I took them outside for an hour and they had a great time picking at the grass, scratching and just generally checking out the big world from the safety of a small chicken wire “play pen”.


(Peep and Paisley face off!)

So far so good on my chicken adventure!