Monday, January 4, 2010

Chicks on the way!

I keep reading that chickens are the best animal to start out with on a farm, easy to raise and hearty. Let's hope so!

In a few weeks we will be receiving nine show-quality Aracauna eggs. Aracaunas originated in South America and lay blue eggs. The children and I are going to try to hatch these eggs into chicks. Sounded easy when I bought the eggs, but after further research, it's a little more complicated than nine eggs=nine chicks. We are looking at it as a fun experiment and if we get any chicks out of it, we'll be happy. Once the eggs arrive, they live in the incubator for about 3 weeks until they are ready to hatch and then hopefully I'll be a chicken mommy!

Colin and Annaliese are very excited about the potential chicks, especially the part where they live in the house with us for several weeks while they get their feathers and grow big enough to be put out in the coop.

Note to self:  You need a chicken coop. And an incubator. And you need to google Chick Poop.


After witnessing the thrill the arrival of eggs caused on the childrens' faces, I just couldn't take the chance that we will not actually have any chicks at the end of the three weeks. So I did what any future chick mom would do and I ordered chicks. My new friend Susan at Happy Chick is setting my eggs today and in 25 short days, our 14 chicks will be overnighted to us. She said the post office is more than happy to deliver our chicks to us. The excitement quickly reaches a new level! Chicks are coming! Chicks are coming!


I showed Cole the pictures of the type of chicks we are getting. Poor Cole. He said, "We're getting designer chickens, aren't we?" You'd think he'd know me by now. Of course we are! If our chicks all hatch as expected, we will be getting a few different breeds.

My favorite (despite Cole's assertion that it looks like an ostrich) is the Showgirl. Aren't they adorable? Showgirls have a bare neck and lots of fluff. We're hoping to get two of these. You have to love the beautiful hat!




We are also getting a few white Silkies. Another fluffy chicken that originated from Asia and is supposed to have hair like silk. Annaliese thought these were made just for her!




We are also getting blue and black Ameracauna chicks which lay colored eggs, some Easter Eggers which lay pastel eggs, and a few blue and black French Copper Marans. We won't even have to color eggs for Easter next year!



These are the blue Ameracauna chicks. Too cute!

In retrospect, I probably should have waited to mention to Annaliese that we will be getting chicks. Her first words this morning were "Are they here yet?".  The concept of three weeks means nothing to an impatient 5-yr old.

I'm off to figure out what type of incubator we need.








3 comments:

  1. One of the cool things about chickens is that you can build a mobile chicken coop and let them fertilize your garden. Yes, a mobile home for chicks!

    Any other land for sale down your way? How did you find the land?

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  2. Hey! I've seen the coops on wheels. They did caution though that chickens scratch a lot and tend to "till" the soil as well as eat a lot of it. We worked with the realtor that sold us our lake house and looked online for the land. Do you want some?? Ideally we would have like land + house, but this was too beautiful to pass up and it's 12 minutes from the lakehouse. :)

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  3. Ideally, yes, land + house. But for now, land would suffice. Ben works in Greer so we would like to have something not too far away from where we are now. Ben likes to hunt and fish, so something that could accommodate both. I want a big garden and room for animals and a barn, a place for bonfires, etc. I'm sure you get the picture! So, land for now with the goal of moving there in a few years.

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