Baby Chicks Arrived Today --- Ahhhhhhhh

Not everyone gets their babies at the Post Office!!

Early this morning, I received a call from the Post Office that our baby chicks had arrived! Baby poultry can be shipped with relatively few problems because of how nature has designed hatchlings to survive. Just before they hatch, they absorb nutrients from the egg, which allows them to live a few days without food or water. They are boxed and into the mail stream within a few hours after they have hatched.

The chicks are packaged in a box with bedding and holes for air. Should it be very cold when the chicks are to ship the hatchery will include a heat pack. Ours arrived all warm and peeping.

I opened the box and there were my 10 little chicks. Aren't they adorable? They are healthy and active. The black chicks are French Marans with the cuckoo pattern meaning a barred pattern in their feathers and the light colored chicks are Easter Eggers. They made the 3 day trip from Purely Poultry in Wisconsin just fine!

We have set up the nursery again in the laundry room so we hear peeps throughout the house. We have a clean box filled with pine shavings and a heat lamp with fresh warm water and chick feed. Before putting them into the nursery, I have to take each chick and dip its beak into the water so they know where to get a drink. They seemed to find the food just fine and within 30 minutes were exploring the box, eating & drinking.

Our new babies include 5 Easter Egg Chickens that lay blue & green colored eggs and 5 French Cuckoo Marans that lay chocolate colored eggs! We presently have 3 hens from our original 5 Easter Eggers which have continuously laid blue, green and olive colored eggs almost every day since they started laying last August. The Easter Eggers are so sweet in nature and excellent layers of such unusual color, I just had to get more. And then I learned about the French Marans breed, which originated in western France in the town of Marans, and is best known for its dark chocolate colored eggs. If you are a James Bond fan, you know he preferred eggs laid by the French Marans hens. The French Marans chickens are supposed to get along well with people and have a calm disposition. Our egg cartons later this summer should be a beautiful thing to see.

On the left is the French Cuckoo Marans and on the right the Easter Egg chick.



This is what the French Marans eggs are supposed to look like!! We'll see in August when they begin laying.