If it was possible to have babies coming out our ears, we'd have 'um coming out our ears! Claudie at the post office called us this morning, bright and early, at 6:45am. Our chicks where in! (Hi Claudie!)
So far, every single one of them is doing GREAT! They all look really healthy, eat well, nap well, and cheep well. That's as good as it gets when you're a baby chicken!
We received all 6 of the Buff Orpington chicks we ordered. They're so small and CUTE! It's amazing that something so small will eventually grown into a 10 pound chicken!
We received 3 of the 4 Red Silkies we ordered. They must have been running short on Red Silkies. In this photo, the Silkies are the ones with the the speckles on their heads (top-middle and far left side).
I think because they were short on Silkies, they sent along 7 (instead of 6 like we ordered) Red Frizzles! Oh my GOODNESS both of these breeds are TINY!! I would imagine they're about as big around as a golf ball. And that includes their fluff, too, and their little bodies are a lot smaller under all of that fluff! But they don' t weigh as much as a golf ball, that's for sure!
Because our order didn't fill an entire quarter-box (25 chicks), the hatchery sent along 7 male Araucana chicks for free to help keep the others warm during shipment. They're BEAUTIFUL!! And they'll grow up to be beautiful roosters (they said these are all roosters). Hope they're friendly roosters, and don't cause too much chaos on the farm. These chicks are at least twice the size - maybe even more - than the other chicks we received. And aren't they handsome in their pin striped fuzz?
Alan helped me get a few close-up photos of each breed we received. The lighting is a bit off due to the natural light from the window, the tungsten light from the room lights, and the red lights over the chicks. But you get the general idea.
This is one of the Red Silkies. Silkies have black-tinted skin, so around their eyes, their beaks/nostrils and their legs are all slightly tinted. They also have 5 toes on each foot. Three toes point out front like normal chickens, and then instead of having one tow that points towards the back, they have two that are very close together.
The light colored tip on this baby's beak is it's egg beak. It's a sharp little cap that grows on the tip of every chick's beak so they can more easlily break out of their egg when it's time to hatch. After a couple of days, the little cap pops off and their beak looks normal.
This is one of the Red Frizzle chicks. They're the smallest of all the chicks we ordered. The hens will grow to be less than 2 pounds when they're full grown. Roosters will weigh right about 2 pounds when their full grown. As they start to get their feathers in, we'll be able to see how many of them will have the true Frizzle-dos. I hope they all do! How fun would that be!!
Like the Silkies, and like Cochins, Frizzle chicks have feathers down the length of their leg and on their outside toe. All those feathers make them look like their wearing pantaloons when you see them from the backside!
This is the smallest of the Araucana chicks we received, also known as Americana's. The coloring on them is wonderful! The dark lines around their eyes are very striking. I had to call the hatchery this morning and ask what kind of chicken they were (since they weren't officially part of our order). It will be fun to see these fellas grow! We got three noticeably different color patterns (you can see them in the group photo above).
The Buff Orpington chicks are a nice creamy yellow color. They don't have any outrageous markings, but they'll grow up to be pretty butterscotch colored hens. They are a clean-legged chicken, so they don't have feathers down their legs or on their toes like the Silkies, Frizzles, and Cochins. What fun it is having them all here! Peep PEEP!!
Oh, and yes, hatcheries ship day-old chicks! Here's a photo of our shipping box. It's about 10x12, and was shipped Priority Mail.
What a fun mail day!
