OMG, but newly hatched bantam Cochin chicks are SO small!
I've purchased one before in a feed store, but I try to get older chicks which are more feathered, so I know they'll survive. You know, having been shipped from a hatchery to the feed store, dumped into a big ol' trough with dozens of others and handled by customers without the individual attention WE give to our chicks once we get them home. My favorite feed store gets its shipments on Thursdays, I get there on Saturdays, and if I'm lucky when I'm in a chick buying mood, there will be some left over from the PREVIOUS week's shipment. They'll be past the most tender and vulnerable age and more likely to survive.
So I've never seen chicks THIS small before.
One hatched the day before yesterday and two hatched yesterday morning in one of my incubators. Put your thumb and forefinger into a circle - each of these chicks would fall through that opening!
Names for two of them have appeared out of thin air: Dorothy and Gidget. Gidget is the smallest and can be called Widget if the "roo transformation" occurs. Haven't figured out what Dorothy's name would be in that event.... and the largest chick just looks like it will be a roo. No name has yet floated into my head.
Aren't they just adorable?
I've purchased one before in a feed store, but I try to get older chicks which are more feathered, so I know they'll survive. You know, having been shipped from a hatchery to the feed store, dumped into a big ol' trough with dozens of others and handled by customers without the individual attention WE give to our chicks once we get them home. My favorite feed store gets its shipments on Thursdays, I get there on Saturdays, and if I'm lucky when I'm in a chick buying mood, there will be some left over from the PREVIOUS week's shipment. They'll be past the most tender and vulnerable age and more likely to survive.
So I've never seen chicks THIS small before.
One hatched the day before yesterday and two hatched yesterday morning in one of my incubators. Put your thumb and forefinger into a circle - each of these chicks would fall through that opening!
Names for two of them have appeared out of thin air: Dorothy and Gidget. Gidget is the smallest and can be called Widget if the "roo transformation" occurs. Haven't figured out what Dorothy's name would be in that event.... and the largest chick just looks like it will be a roo. No name has yet floated into my head.
Aren't they just adorable?
