Peepers!!

Peepers! Fuzz-balls! Chicks!!

Ahem...

Yes, we got our new batch of chickens today. :)

I wasn't really aware that Mama had even ordered them until a few days ago. (Thus Saturday's finishing, more or less, of the brooder coop.) Anyway, this morning, as the market day final prep stuff got underway, Mama told me that she wanted to me do something for her. That "something" was finalize for the chicks arrival.

Gladly, I went to work. I like chickens, you know, and chicks are kind of fun.

First, I washed the feeders and water jars...

Before...(you can't really tell how dirty they were from the picture.)

After...

I left them in the house to dry and went out to put the bedding in the galvanized water trough we use as a brooder. 

The finished brooder coop.

The water trough brooder.

Someplace along in here, I had to go ask Daddy where the heat lamps and power cord were. The bulbs themselves were actually on top of the old Cadillac in the garage, not on the shelf where he said they were (I'm glad Katherine knew where they were!). The 'China-mans hat' was clipped to the support beam of the lean-to on the old garage and the power cord was in the barn. :)

Bedding in, heat lamp on...

All ready! Due to the size of the chicks when they arrive, I took the lids of the feed trays. The chicks would be incapable of eating out of them if the lids were on. As is, they rather have to get in to eat! :D

I didn't have the thing set up a moment too soon, either. The chicks arrived practically as soon as I had everything ready.

Box full of peepers!

Eagerly opening the box...

Peepers!!

The first thing you do when you receive chicks in the mail is to pick them up one by one and dip their beaks in some water and make sure they get a drink. Then you can put them into the brooder where they have free access to water and feed.

Say "Hi!"

Fuzz-balls!

Smart ones too...they found the water real quick!

Ya think he was a little miffed with me?? :D

Of the fifty-one birds (one was free when you ordered 50, I guess), I found one that was real sickly looking:

See how it's eyes are shut and it's kind of curled into the fetal position? As soon as I saw those closed eyes like that, I knew he was a goner.

It died after a couple of hours, which wasn't surprising. So, what with that chick and the one of Katherine's chickens I found dead in the paddock, there are two dead animals today.

However, on a different note (though still chicken related), I went to go feed the chickens some popcorn that Mama had burnt while making popcorn for the market today, and as I was doing so, I noticed that the black hen that keeps 'escaping' into the next paddock was just sitting there and not coming over for the food. I decided I had better go check on her. She was sitting practically smack-dab in the middle of the paddock, a "nest" formed in the grass and four eggs under her. So, plain and simple, she is broody! I hope the eggs are fertilized...I know nothing about letting hens go broody because we've never let any of them do so before. 

Popcorn reminds me--Mama asked me to figure out how to make chocolate popcorn for next week while she was gone this afternoon, so after lunch, I did.

If you like chocolate and popcorn, you'd probably love this. Even though I am not supposed to be eating either sugar or corn of any sort at this point, I of course, had to taste it (call it my weekend popcorn splurge). I personally could stand it to be a little less sweet, but still, it was good. :)

Well, that's the excitement of today. How was your day?

      Racheal