We ordered 25 brown egg layers from Murray McMurray Hatchery. Their prices were reasonable and they had a lot of choices. They even threw in a "rare chick" with our order. Of course...we have no idea which one it is. We have no idea what any of them are!
We used an Graco portable crib that we had as a brooder. We, of course, removed all the children first. ;) We have our heat lamp up above (red bulb) and they are in the basement with the woodstove so it's cozy warm. We made sure that each one of them drank water and they all know where the food is. Some are eating better than others. And some of them are scaring the heck out of us because they stop and sleep almost instantly! lol
We have 15 left that made it through shipping. Since we are in the middle of an ice storm and frigid cold I am surprised that any of them made it. Eight were gone before we even opened the box and two followed with-in 1 hour. One suddenly passed several hours later. There are two that have us concerned and we are tending to them continuously. We made a mash out of the chicken starter and some sugar water and it seemed to perk all of them up. We are getting replacements next week for all the goners so kudos to McMurrays for good service.
Searching around the internet for pictures of chicks so we can try to identify the specific breeds has been fun. So many of them look alike at this age that we decided just to wait and figure it out when they grow up. Feel free to identify them if you can! :)
I don't know, but that chick with the stripe looks real similar to our Ameraucanas at that age. Nice lookin' flock!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think we are gonna end up with about 30 of them which is a little larger than we thought but still manageable. We had planned on oversizing our enclosed coop anyway so hopefully it's enough. We are working on building it now to be finished by the time we need to move them from the brooder in the outbuilding. Got the section of the land cleared and leveled. Now...if the snow would only stop! Oh, I hope we do have some Ameraucanas! I so wanted at least a few.:)
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