Chicks!

We ordered our chicks to be delivered the week of June 3. We anxiously awaited the 6:00 phone call every day until if finally came on Thursday. We jumped in the car and drove to the post office. This was not our first rodeo. We knew to look over our heads for the doorbell. Hilda pushed it once, but didn’t hear anything from inside. I was about to press again when I saw a man with a small box headed for the door.

We took the cheeping package home to the brooder box that we’d had ready since Sunday. Here are the chicks in the box they were shipped in.

A little box o' chicks

Here they are in their new home on their second day.

 We are trying a new meat bird this year, Murray’s Big Red Broiler. They are slower growing, but don’t have the leg problems that plague the Cornish x Rock. Based on the information we had when we ordered, we scheduled the butchering date at 8 weeks. When I checked the website just now, it said 12 weeks. We’ll have to get that sorted out.

Murray's Big Red Broiler

We are also trying two new breeds of hens, Black Australorp and Whiting True Green. The Black Australorp are supposed to be not only friendly, but also excellent layers of light brown eggs. 

Black Austrolorp

We got Whiting True Blue last year (Whiting is the breeder’s name). I will be interested to know if one can really tell the difference between blue and green eggs.

Whiting True Green

We dipped the beak of each chick in water for their first drink. Once we saw them swallowing, we released them into the brooder box. We put the feeder in the box and took a guess as to how high the heat lamp needed to be. We checked on them frequently and adjusted the light. Last year the chicks came in the middle of an unseasonably warm June; we lost three of the meat chickens to heat stress. The end of the week was hot this year also. It wasn’t long before we had the windows and doors of the coop open.

In the afternoon, I took a break from gardening to take picture of the chicks. They weren’t all there. In particular, we were missing one Black Austrolorp and one Whiting True Green. Figures it would be the layers. We might have been missing a meat chicken as well. I counted 18 chicks. It is hard to count chicks as they do not stand still for long. I asked Hilda if she had seen three black chicks before. She was sure she had. She returned to the coop with me and counted 19 chicks. Terry and I had seen a stray cat hunting voles out in the hay field. Would it have been bold enough to come close to the house and snag two chicks out of the brooder box? All of the other usual suspects—racoons, foxes, coyotes—were nocturnal. This was very upsetting. Needless to say, we shut the outer coop door. Hilda and I talked about options. She went to the Murray McMurray website to see if the minimum order had changed as the weather warmed. No. Still had to order 15. That was way more than we could raise. Farm and Fleet and Tractor Supply wouldn’t have chicks for sale this late. In the end, we decided we would just keep two of the two-year-old layers another year to bring the flock up to 12.

The next morning, we counted as we moved the chicks to a storage bin and checked for pasty butt. 17, 18, 19. We had all the meat chickens. I lifted the feeder out of the box to refill it and said, “Twenty, twenty-one.” A black chick and a brown chick had been under the feeder, presumably since we put it in the box the day before. There wasn’t any way they could have crawled under. They were a bit wobbly and noticeably smaller than their sisters (amazing how fast they grow with proper nutrition!), but otherwise seemed fine. We felt like terrible caregivers. Why didn’t we count after we put the feeder in? Well. The should-haves don’t count, and all’s well that ends well.

There were FIVE meat chickens with pasty butt. We never had a problem with pasty butt on the Cornish x Rock. If there was one thing they were good at, it was pooping. None of the layers had a problem, so that was a victory. After we cleaned the brooder and put in clean water and food (while the box was empty), we put all the clean chicks back in, and I took the storage bin with the pasty butt chicks into the bathroom. In case you don’t remember or are a new reader, sometimes young chicks get poop stuck to their down around the vent (the dual-purpose opening for the oviduct and intestine). If it isn’t cleaned up, it can completely block the vent, which will kill the chick. I am amazed at how good I’ve gotten with pasty butt. The first time it happened, I was very nervous, wore exam gloves, and tried to remove the poop with a damp paper towel. That resulted in open wounds that required further research and the purchase of antibiotic ointment. The next year, I found a better method, which is to hold their little butts under warm running water while gently rubbing with a finger until the poop softens up and washes out. I don’t even bother with gloves anymore. Then I dry their butts with a hair dryer set to low. It’s sort of like a spa day for chicks.

Chicks outgrow pasty butt after a few days. On the second morning, only two chicks needed a butt bath. This morning, it was only one. We will have to keep them contained in a small area until there is no more pasty butt. I don’t want to chase the chicks around the whole coop every morning.

The lilacs are blooming profusely. I love my sunset walks down to the orchard to close the door to the hens’ coop. As the wind dies in the evening, the air fills with lilac fragrance. I admire the color of the sky, inhale deeply, and listen to the birds. It’s a peaceful time.

Two varieties of lilacs in bloom

By day, the lilacs are an important source of pollen and nectar. There are always red admirals flitting about.

A red admiral drinking lilac nectar

Yesterday I saw a butterfly that was unfamiliar to me. It is a silver-spotted skipper.

A silver-spotted skipper

On my way back to the house, I nearly stepped on an American toad on the lawn. I wondered if it was the same one I'd been careful not to hit with the mower last week.

An American toad living a dangerous life in the lawn

I love this time of year.