Babies arrived

Just picked up our shipment of chicks from Meyers in Ohio.......well packed! I was amazed, the box seemed small! Posted these in my tractor build thread, but thought I'd share here, too!

4 each Buff Orps, Barred Rocks, RIR's, and 3 Easter Eggers, all arrived safe and sound:

Soooo adorable!

Wonderful! We are hearing so many sad stories because of the weather. Glad yours made it.

What a nice assortment! Congratulations!

So, we've had our birds for 24 hrs now, and they are all still kicking. Whew.

Things learned so far:
Chicks are funny little things.
Each has a personality.
Cleaning dried poo from their butt down.....not fun(though I did discover this morning, a pair of tweezers crushes the dried stuff nicely!)
Vent-checking is a task, with the little speed racers zooming all over the brooder. Need to think of a way to segregate "done" from "not done"! Shoe box, maybe......

Most important thing learned so far: This chicken stuff is kind of fun......can't wait to reap the golden rewards! LOL

OH! And, this site is INVALUABLE!!!! Thanks to all!

mo2872 said:

Just picked up our shipment of chicks from Meyers in Ohio.......well packed! I was amazed, the box seemed small! Posted these in my tractor build thread, but thought I'd share here, too!

4 each Buff Orps, Barred Rocks, RIR's, and 3 Easter Eggers, all arrived safe and sound:

Click to expand...

Seeing these little guys make me so excited for our new family members to get here!

So adorable! Makes my wait time seem even longer. Thanks for the pictures of the box they came in, I've ordered from Meyers 5 RIR and 5 BR and this gives me an idea as to what to expect !

I should clarify......I ordered through MyPetChicken.com, but it wasn't hard to figure where they were coming from when the tracking said "Polk, OH"..........LOL.

40.5 hour update.....refilled their food, as it was low enough they were sticking half their bodies in the holes. They didn't HAVE to, mind you, there was still plenty there by the holes. I think the crumbles must have looked crumblier in the MIDDLE of the feeder. Nipped that in the tail feathers in a hurry, for fear one would get stuck in there.

Cleaned some pasty butts again. Does that ever go away? IIRC, I've read where people talked of shaving their vent area? Do I remember that right, and if so, what age can that start?? I've got a beard groomer that would be PERFECT on this fuzz of theirs.....and I don't sport a beard anymore, since it got too........distinguished......looking......(read that as "grey"....).

Amazed at how fast their little feathers are starting to come in on their wings.

Our Barred Rocks seem to be little......bullies. Or, they're just ornery as all get out. They just seem to jump right in the middle of a sleeping pile of fluff, just for the fun of waking them all up. Crazy birds.

The Buff O's are FAST. Lower their heads, and ZOOOOM, they're gone and around the brooder in nothing flat.

Eggers all seem content and mellow. I was looking at the sample pic of EE chicks on the my pet chicken site, and I think we got one of each as pictured!

They were falling asleep standing up, with one puffball face-planting into the pine. She settled in after that awakening!

RIR's seem content as well, if not a little curious what everyone else is doing. They seem to follow behind another bird, as if to say, "Oooooh, she missed something, I just KNOW it!!!!"

Crazy, we spent a good hour and a half out there, just sitting and watching them. Cheap date, for the wife and I, I guess!


Edit: Thought of another question for the seasoned veterans......there's no such thing as a RIR Bantam, is there? One of our chicks looks like a runt, much smaller than the other three. Simple genetics, or are there "runts" of the hatch, too??

Dagommit, our little "runt" RIR took a bad turn overnight. Went out this morning, and she was very lethargic, would not sit down, but looked as if she could fall asleep at any moment. We were working on cleaning her up(she was one of our pasty butted ones), and she just stopped breathing. So, then there were 14. Dunno if she just wasn't "right" to begin with, but yesterday afternoon she was picking up pine shavings and running like a mad girl around the brooder, with 4-5 others playing chase.

Any thoughts?

It's possible the RIR chick was chilled in shipping. It's not uncommon to lose chicks several days after receiving them.
It's also possible that she ate pine shavings and got plugged up. When they are newborn they don't know what they are supposed to eat. So they try everything. I never put newborns on pine shavings until they are at least 2 weeks old. I use old towels to give them a rough surface to walk on. I'm sorry to hear you lost one.