Farmer Man Has Chicks, Lots of Chicks!

Yesterday we picked up our baby hens.  Thirty little Black Sex Links girls, a very hardy bird that can be used for their brown eggs and for meat (although we have no intention of eating them).  We also got ten little Ameraucanas, also known as the Easter Egg bird because they lay eggs in pastel shades of green and blue.  The Hens are two years old, and will start to lay less and less eggs, so it was time for some new girls.  The Ameraucanas are not sexed so we may get some roosters.  They are an interesting bunch; most are brown and beige striped, one is quite yellow like the classic Easter chick.  I love picking up chicks: you are handed a peeping, cheeping box that rustles constantly.  Once we got them home, where the brooder was all set up an waiting, we have to dip each little beak in the waterer so they know where and what it is.  The food dispenser they find on their own; as soon as one finds it word seems to spread quickly.  They are so adorable, rushing and tumbling around, mobbing under the heat lamp.  Numerous checks yesterday right into the evening left us confident that they are settling in nicely!