Our first Biddies have arrived!

[schlitch]

The little ones arrived from Ideal today, all 10 that we ordered appear to be doing well. They took to the feed and water right away and have already had a nap or two.
I setup an old dog kennel for them and they seem to have taken to it well.

Here is the 'brooder' prior to the chicks arrival after I had installed the shavings, paper towels, and checked the temp. In the picture you can see the paper towels, and there are pine shavings beneath them.

I checked the temperature before and after placing the litter and it raised it a few degrees.

Finally here are the little ones in their new home.

You can see the pairs of Ameraucana, RIRs, Black Australorps, and Delaware pullets easily. There are also 2 Golden sex links, one is behind the jar of the feeder and the other out of frame.

Here is the Golden sex link, that was camera shy in the other picture, up close with the green dot on her head.

I meant to snap a picture of the box that they came in, but I'll do that in a little bit.

We are just so excited!

 

[Poison Ivy]

Congrats they are so cute. I have 15 more days until my babies hatch.

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

ahh.. who dont just love the babies...

:aww

 

[schlitch]

The post office called at 5am and then at 7am, leaving messages both times at my WORK number! Work is 35 minutes away and so I didn't get the messaged until I arrived. I immediately called my DW and proceeded to drive back home to make sure all was okay after she picked them up and brought them home. And yes, I did have my home number included on my order as well as my daytime number. So if you order I'd only put the one where you want them to call to go pick them up.

Here is the box that they came in, I meant to snap a picture prior to removing them from the box, but hey once they arrived it just wasn't a priority. Had to get them food and water.

And a few more pictures of the biddies.

One of the delawares seems to be the most mischievous one so far. She waits until all the others are settled down to nap and then runs around pecking on their wing feathers while they attempt to sleep.

I do have a question too about the red heat lamp/bulbs.
Are these available in a regular size bulb (not wide like a flood lamp) and if so does anyone know if home depot/lowes/walmart carries them? I know petsmart does but that is like and hour away, compared to 15-20 minutes for the other 3.

 

[Standard Hen]

Everytime we see these "new chick pics" we all want more!!!! Very cute. I am not sure if those stors have the small red bulbs as I got the floodlamp type but I thought Wal-Mart carries just about everything? Good Luck with the little darlings.

 

[Stormhorse23]

I got 10 from Ideal too. I think the box was a little too small for all of my brahma babes. They could get out the slats in the sides!!!!!

 

[PeiTheCelt]

They are so absolutely completely adorable!!!

 

[schlitch]

Quote:
It looks like they will have to wait until tomorrow night. I'll run by a few of the stores tomorrow searching for em, but may end up buying the larger one as I could probably use it in my portable coup over night when I move them outside.

Stormhorse23: Glad none slipped out on yours during their shipment. Those must have been some tiny ones.

 

[schlitch]

I ended up having to go to PetSmart anyway, and got a 75watt reptile red heatlamp, based on an employee's recomendation after I told him what kind of setup I had and temps I needed. He was dead on for me. I put it in my hanging shop light fixture (you can see in the pictures and video from the links below), and had to made sure it was perpendicular to the brooder floor to get 93-95 degrees. I had angled it down about 45 degrees and it hit 100 before I adjusted it. Now that we are starting week 2 I'm starting to angle it up a little bit to get closer to 90. I've got it up about as high as it will go now too.

BTW, I finally was able to post videos of the little ones on YouTube, see the last link in my signature for that.

 

[schlitch]

'Yes I just keep adding to the current post. I see no reason to start a new topic to continue the updates.'

Anyways, the little ones are now a little over 2 weeks old. I create a new personal page called 'First Month' where I am intending on snaping pictures of each bread at one week intervals to create some type of visual record that perhaps others will find useful in some way. These can be reached through my signature links.

The biddies spent their first time outside overnight last night. I had intended to check on them about midnight, as I usually wake up most every night at about that time. However, it was 4:30am when I woke up.

I went out and they were all sleeping soundly except for 2. The red heat lamp seemed to work out good for them in the coup, it only dropped down to about 67F outside last night.

With the upcoming rain over the weekend and into next week, with the tropical storm/hurricane coming to land, I'm leaving the brooder set up so as to bring them in. At 2.5 weeks, am I right in assuming that they don't need to get really wet? I think that they could stay dry in the coup, but would they go in it during the rain?

My rooster plays in the rain, so I'm wondering if they would do the same. Thanks for any insight on this.