Baby Chicks

Yesterday was the big day... 70 new baby chicks!!  Granny Smith came with me to the feed store to pick them up.  As usual, a visit to the feed store is an exciting event.  Granny Smith was not excited thinking we were buying full grown chicken, but when he got there and saw the baby chicks, plus a bathtub full of baby ducks, he was in heaven.

While we were looking at the ducks, another mom and her little girl came in.  The mom wanted some ducks, but only girl ducks!  She wondered if the owner could tell the difference between the drakes and the hens (hens?  is that the right name for female ducks?)  We watched as he picked up each duck, turned it stomach side up, and held a penny on a string over it.  After watching the coin for about 5 seconds he'd put the duck down and pick up the next one.  When he was done, he said, "well, there you go, those 4 are female".  What??!  We asked him how he did that and he said he'd done it for a long time and he could tell if a mom was having a baby boy or a girl, too.  Well, the other mom happened to be expecting a baby.  She had already had an ultra-sound and knew what she was having, so this was too good a test to pass up.  He sat her down in an old chair in the corner of the store, held his penny over her stomach, and then said, "you're having a little girl."  She looked up at him with this funny look and said, "you got it right!"

See what I mean about the feed store? 

At first I was going to get 80 chicks, but then I wimped out and cut it back to 60, but then once I saw he had buff brahmas, and a few more banties, it went back up to 70.  This is what we ended up with:

Mille Fleur Banties: 7

Buff Brahmas: 2

Black sex-links:10

Golden sex-links: 20

Barred Rocks: 10

Buff Orpingtons: 10 

Rhode Island Reds: 10

I know that's only 69, but I swear we all counted them when we got home, there were 70.  They are really hard to count though. 

It was so cold yesterday I couldn't put them in the coop.  Baby chicks are to be kept warm at 90 degrees for the first week, and since it was below zero that morning (according to the feed store man) I thought that was a bit much to expect two heat lamps to do.  So they are in the garage in our neighbors trusty swimming pool.  We put a rake handle across the top and clipped on two heat lamps.  Very professional process.  Then since it was still too cold I draped a blanket across the top to keep drafts out.

Braeburn helped us transfer the chicks, which was really nice since I just can't pick them up.  I don't know why.  He was very efficient, too, because he is entering 2 movies he made into the Kiwanis Film Festival, and he needed to drive down town and submit them.  We'll keep our fingers crossed for the chickens and for Braeburn's movies.