Baby Chicks

Shipment of our order of baby chicks was delayed a week.  Perhaps it should have been delayed a bit longer.  The poor creatures had a very difficult trip.  I'm not sure who abused them...the airlines or the post office.


They were scheduled to arrive at the St Francis Post Office early Friday morning.  I got a call that morning saying the truck from Kansas City-yes, Kansas City even though the chicks originated in Texas-didn't arrive in Colby until after the truck from Colby to St Francis had departed.  Several telephone calls later it had been arranged that the little ones would be delivered directly to Prairie House by the Postmaster from Colby.


It was a pretty sad sight when I opened their box.  There was chirping coming from the box when it arrived, so I was hopeful their stressful trip hadn't taken too large a toll.  I was wrong.  A third of them were already dead and several more nearly so.  I fired up the incubator and put the nearly dead and struggling to survive chicks in the incubator.  From previous experiences we have found that sometimes just warming their little bodies back up for them will revive them.  Of the 7 attempted resuscitations, five survived.  One of those later succumbed, however.


On the bright side, eleven of them were fighters and they are looking pretty healthy and happy now, as you can see:

The hatchery will try again next week and send another shipment.  Keep your fingers crossed their travels will be less eventful and they will arrive on time and in good shape.  We ordered the hatchery's "Surprise Special" which is basically 
comprised of  the leftover chicks which weren't purchased as specific breed orders.  It is fun to receive those orders because it is always  an interesting group of chicks.    We aren't sure which breed the majority of these are...but they are obviously hardy chicks.  We have narrowed the selection down to 3 or 4 breeds which have chicks with these markings when they are little.


I'll send more pictures as they grow.