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Welcome to BYC! here's a couple of tips. Depending on where you are getting your chicks from and how they are being sent to you, you may also get "peanut" chicks - extra chicks they throw in the box to "insulate" the 4 you ordered. These are usually, but not always, cull (read roo) chicks. And hatchery sexing is about 90% accurate, so just keep that in mind if you ordered all girls. The BEST place to learn about the care and raising of your new fuzzie butts is "Raising Chickens 101" on the home page. The first thing you are going to need is a brooder box. If you are keeping your brooder in the house, you should stop using any air fresheners and/or plug-ins. Some of them can be lethal to birds.
I am raising my araucanas as egg laying pets too. So I made sure they all knew I was mamma. You'll have to make sure your new babies know how to drink water and what is suitable food. (bedding is not!). I fed my babies starter crumbles out of my hand as well as having it available in the feeder. If I heard loud cheeping (which means "help me" in chicken speak) I would pop my hand in to comfort the cryer. Initially, the brooder light will be on 24/7 and your babies will eat, sleep, poop, sleep, poop, eat, poop, sleep, eat and poop some more. When they were up and moving around, I would take them out one by one and set them in my lap, give them a treat (see the treats chart) and pet them for a minute or two, then put them back. Every night before I went to bed I would do the same thing. Get an apron or two - you'll need them.
My 4 aruacanas are now 15 weeks and living outside in a coop and run. I have a chair in the run so I can go in and sit with them. They will follow me to the chair and after I do a chair poop check, sit down and pat my lap. If they're interested after they find out I don't have any goodies, they'll jump into my lap for a good petting and neck rub. They love to have their necks rubbed! Sometimes all 4 want to get up at the same time, but I just don't have the lap room anymore since they've gotten to big! Sometimes one will just settle down and go to sleep in my lap. It's so sweet.
