Well ultimately we're here on the Earth having a mortal experience as people trying to be saints, learning how to be good to some day go back to living with Jesus. So you want to try to not crush their feelings (relatives) even though it can be quite frustrating dealing with family members.
If they are chicks that they want to give you, and your mother got them for you to share her love with you of something beautiful and self sufficient, it would be tragic to reject it.
And science has found infants to often be resistant to many diseases in many species for unexplainable reasons. (An example; they found people under 18 years old would have much much harder time to get Covid. This is just one example. People have found also sometimes in Africa children are born from a mom that has AIDS full blown, but the child didn't get it maybe half the time. And animals can be like that too but with different illnesses.)
I think they want to share their dreams with you.
*** Is it possible that you have enough yard space to receive the chics your parents want to give you, and do a separate pen for others that you pick out yourself from somewhere else? This is what I'd suggest has the best gain overall! ***
You could actually raise both groups while watching the one pair to see if they are sick or not, and then have them quarantined for a few weeks before mixing them with the others. It would take them a few weeks to grow anyway, and while that small you wouldn't lose that much for feed. Plus, its like that half the chics didn't die of disease, but rather from malnourishment. I've seen what chic yards are like, and what happens is the big animals go over and take the food of the smaller animals. Then they don't grow. And some of the deaths are also very likely from mixing the big hens with the tiny chics with this happening, and with some of them getting trampled. If this is the case you could save money also by taking them.
And I think your family members just don't have the strength that they used to at 70. I don't think its that they don't care. But when your body hurts and is in pain or has troubles you can't do all the things you want. And after awhile you get tired of telling it to people because they won't listen or understand anyway. I know this from my experience. Then you sort of pretend to be tough, but sometimes people think you are uncaring or grouchy.
I think its possible you could work this out.
How big is your lot?
If its big enough, setting up two pens, one for quarantine would be quite easy. You could even have it just make shift fencing made out of what's available against a garage, etc. And then after the quarantine period is over have everything together.
I'd looked at prices also for chics.
You can save money by taking these in.
But if you order your own, right out of the gate, you'll get hit with a small order fee of $20 for most hatcheries, plus $20 shipping fees. Sometimes you can wave the small order fee by ordering over 25.
This is why I think it could be a good thing to not reject your relatives trying to help.
With my situation, my relatives don't help me with anything. So I'm a bit jealous, even though its not a perfect deal.
Also, another point that nobody is bringing up is that most hatcheries shut down at the end of September for winter prep. A few do go in early October until the cold hits. But the idea I'm trying to convey is that you don't have a lot of time left to get your chics squared away before winter. This also suggests not rejecting any gift horse in the mouth right now, because a lot of hatcheries are already sold out of the major breeds. I've seen this myself this week looking at ducklings and broilers where its hard to find the ones you want. And then also even if you do find one that has what you want, sometimes its the last hatchery with that breed because they had the most 'shipping' fees. An example is you'll see a lot of hatcheries sold out of 'welsh harlequinn' ducklings. (These are soooo beautiful. Really.) And also seeing them sold out of forage and meat broiler top breed chics sometimes.
Its also possible some of the ones your relatives have might be some of those breeds you'll like.
If they are chicks that they want to give you, and your mother got them for you to share her love with you of something beautiful and self sufficient, it would be tragic to reject it.
And science has found infants to often be resistant to many diseases in many species for unexplainable reasons. (An example; they found people under 18 years old would have much much harder time to get Covid. This is just one example. People have found also sometimes in Africa children are born from a mom that has AIDS full blown, but the child didn't get it maybe half the time. And animals can be like that too but with different illnesses.)
I think they want to share their dreams with you.
*** Is it possible that you have enough yard space to receive the chics your parents want to give you, and do a separate pen for others that you pick out yourself from somewhere else? This is what I'd suggest has the best gain overall! ***
You could actually raise both groups while watching the one pair to see if they are sick or not, and then have them quarantined for a few weeks before mixing them with the others. It would take them a few weeks to grow anyway, and while that small you wouldn't lose that much for feed. Plus, its like that half the chics didn't die of disease, but rather from malnourishment. I've seen what chic yards are like, and what happens is the big animals go over and take the food of the smaller animals. Then they don't grow. And some of the deaths are also very likely from mixing the big hens with the tiny chics with this happening, and with some of them getting trampled. If this is the case you could save money also by taking them.
And I think your family members just don't have the strength that they used to at 70. I don't think its that they don't care. But when your body hurts and is in pain or has troubles you can't do all the things you want. And after awhile you get tired of telling it to people because they won't listen or understand anyway. I know this from my experience. Then you sort of pretend to be tough, but sometimes people think you are uncaring or grouchy.
I think its possible you could work this out.
How big is your lot?
If its big enough, setting up two pens, one for quarantine would be quite easy. You could even have it just make shift fencing made out of what's available against a garage, etc. And then after the quarantine period is over have everything together.
I'd looked at prices also for chics.
You can save money by taking these in.
But if you order your own, right out of the gate, you'll get hit with a small order fee of $20 for most hatcheries, plus $20 shipping fees. Sometimes you can wave the small order fee by ordering over 25.
This is why I think it could be a good thing to not reject your relatives trying to help.
With my situation, my relatives don't help me with anything. So I'm a bit jealous, even though its not a perfect deal.
Also, another point that nobody is bringing up is that most hatcheries shut down at the end of September for winter prep. A few do go in early October until the cold hits. But the idea I'm trying to convey is that you don't have a lot of time left to get your chics squared away before winter. This also suggests not rejecting any gift horse in the mouth right now, because a lot of hatcheries are already sold out of the major breeds. I've seen this myself this week looking at ducklings and broilers where its hard to find the ones you want. And then also even if you do find one that has what you want, sometimes its the last hatchery with that breed because they had the most 'shipping' fees. An example is you'll see a lot of hatcheries sold out of 'welsh harlequinn' ducklings. (These are soooo beautiful. Really.) And also seeing them sold out of forage and meat broiler top breed chics sometimes.
Its also possible some of the ones your relatives have might be some of those breeds you'll like.
