A lot of poultry firsts this week - Our first mail order chicks arrived. The Post Office called us to pick them up. Our first time having 25 chicks at one time. (We had 120 additional chicks in boxes that we had ordered and picked up for another farming friend of mine!) It was like a chorus of cheeping. They are our first "meat chickens" -- the Red Ranger variety are supposed to be hearty and excellent foragers.
It was also the first time any of my chicks have died. We lost 2 in the first 2 days. None since then. Baby L is obsessed with them. She could easily reach them in this first brooder. I heard a cheeping noise getting louder and louder as I was working in the kitchen. It was baby L coming up the basement steps with a chick clutched "gently" in her hand. I am not sure if that was one on the casualties... It seemed fine when I screamed and took it back to the brooder. Needless to say, by the second day we had moved them to their larger brooder box.
These pictures were taken just after they arrived and were taken out of the shipping box.
I'm jealous you got meat chickens! How exciting! I'll be asking you for advice on them someday if we move more rural :)
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