1 Week old Chicks

Well, after writing my last post, I woke up the next morning and the little chick had passed away. :(  I am guessing it must of had something wrong with it from birth.  I did call Murray McMurray Hatchery on the phone, and the nice customer service lady, issued me a refund for the little one that passed on, plus the missing bird in the original order, and also for the vaccinations for the 2 birds.  What a great company to work with!  And, on a happier note, the rest of them are still doing well, and sprouting feathers so quickly!  First the wings, now we have some tail feathers, and a couple of them are starting to gets some feathers on their backs. The friendliest of them all are the 3 White Giants (I am guessing that is what they are for now), the 3 of them have been named, Kiwi, Apple, & Blossom.   Here is a pic of Kiwi, staring at my cell phone trying to figure out what on earth it is!

A couple of the girls at the watering hole:

And another little cutie:

Starting to see their feathers in this pic:

So as of today they are 1 week and 2 days old, it's so fun to watch them grow!

The Chicks have arrived!

Well the babies are here!! Everyone survived the trip beautifully upon arrival. I never imagined how hard it would be to figure out what breeds they are,but it is! I ordered the assortment of 25 egg layers and 1 Free Exotic Chicken, I ended up only receiving a total of 25, including the exotic chicken. That's ok though, 25 birds is plenty to keep us busy and will produce lots of eggs in our near future.  The one chicken I am certain I know what it is, is the exotic chicken.  It is a Silver Sebright, so dainty compared to the rest of them, and very skittish.  I think it's so skittish because it is so much smaller than the rest and is just trying to stay out of everyone's way! :)  I also THINK I have 4 Silver Laced Wyandottes, and possibly 3 Light Brahma's (they have adorable feathers on the outside of their feet.....so cute), and maybe 2 Dark Cornish, and 3 White Giants, as for the rest.....I am completely clueless!! A really nice variety.  

I do have one little chicken that is kinda acting strange, every once in a while, it sits completely still and almost looks like it is panting, or like it's chewing something......weird.  First I thought maybe they were too warm, so we moved the light up and that seemed to remedy the problem. But, today again, it started doing that all over again, so I will keep an eye on it and see what happens.  

I am just loving these little girls, it's so fun to watch their little feathers sprouting, they seriously change right before your eyes.  Off to check on the girls!

Here is one of the feather footed ones!

They've Shipped!

Got my shipping notice today from Murray McMurray Hatchery, called the post office, and they will be calling bright and early as soon as the chicks arrive so I can go pick them up.  We've decided to use sand in the brooder, and for the first couple of days, maybe a week, I will cover the sand with paper towels to keeps their little legs from getting deformed, or splayed.  

So now the excitement begins ~ I will post pics as soon as they arrive! Finally, my babies will be here!