Ari "Two Elements" Jackson

TODAY IS BABY CHICK DAY!

I did not expect them today, but I rolled with it. They were delivered via courier service from Iowa. They left yesterday afternoon and they all seem to be in pretty good shape! There is one of them that looks a day younger, and I'm betting that that's an unsexed bird and a rooster. I don't know why we got an extra on top of that. But the extra extra looks like the same breed as the ones my neighbor ordered. Only two of them are mine, but I'm going to hand raise them all summer so that they are gentle, sweet birds when she gets back from work in Michigan in September.

I set them up in a nylon pen on a table in the kitchen which is tempting the kittens, but they're not gonna be able to get in there or tip the pen over.

They've got a heat plate instead of a mama and they've already started pecking at their food.

I'm not going to put a mama hen in with them because nobody went broody this spring. I tried to entice at least one of my girls to do so, but it didn't work (the technique is to leave wooden eggs in one of the nest boxes and see if one of the hens gathers everybody's eggs every day and sits on them. One of mine was sort of doing that? But she didn't fight me when I gathered eggs, so she was not ready).

Also, I don't want anything that my birds might have to infect these little babies, so there is that consideration.

#ChickensOfMastodon #FediChooks

May 19 at 9:01pmWeb
Show threadBookMay 19
@arisummerland #FediChooks is my new favourite tag.
Show threadBill FellowsMay 20

@arisummerland Someone on a forum mentioned that when they mail the chicks, they often throw in extras as "packing peanuts" and that phrase has stuck in my brain.

But that's also how I ended up with 8 instead of 6.

Show threadAri "Two Elements" JacksonMay 20

@billinkc Ah ha ha same. I expected seven (because we went with the additional mystery chick) and got 8.

Only two of them are staying with me, though.

I've got my neighbor's birds here again this summer, two Ameraucanas, and I will eventually introduce her chicks into their pen rather than move her birds in with mine, which is what we've done the past few summers.

She's supposed to build out her yard with a bigger run for her birds when she gets back in September, so next year, her birds won't move over here. I'll go down there to take care of them (it's less than half a block away).

I went ahead and put my best previous mama hen in with the chicks last night and she's doing pretty well being a sudden adoptive mother.

The chicks figured out they could stand underneath her instead of the heat plate,so I took the heat plate out.

I think it'll be nice for them to have a mama! They've never seen one before yesterday, I'm sure, being incubator babies.

There's one teeny tiny one that I'm already pretty sure is a rooster. 😖

Show threadBill FellowsMay 20
@arisummerland Roo yours or theirs or the extra?
Show threadAri "Two Elements" JacksonMay 20

@billinkc Am pretty sure it's the mystery chick. It's teeny and cute! It's mostly dark brown. I have no idea what kind of bird it's going to turn out to be (and I could be wrong; it could be a hen). The ones we ordered are very clearly the types we ordered and they were all supposed to be hens.

It looks like the other packing peanut chick is another Ameraucana, but I'm not sure yet.

I'm keeping the two Australorpes, and if the mystery chick turns out to be a rooster, I've got friends in the country who will take him when he's big enough to fend for himself.

But I'm not really counting my chickens yet, even though they've already hatched.