The Replacements

Looked what arrived in the mail:

Six adorable chicks! They shipped yesterday from Meyer Hatchery and arrived in town late this morning. The kind people at the post office called to let me know they had reached their destination. I took an early lunch break to pick them up, take them home, and get them settled into their new surroundings.

I ordered these six "replacements" after losing two chickens from the Original Six that were ordered in the spring. One of those chicks died when it was a couple of days old, and Blackie was a victim of a vermin attack last week. So why order six chicks to replace two? I had been debating about ordering a few more chickens for the last few weeks-- not only are chickens fun to watch, but maybe I can sell any extra eggs to earn some money to help cover the cost of the birds (although keeping chickens is pretty inexpensive once you have all the equipment and coop).

I was hoping to order another Australorp and Buff Orpington, but the hatchery didn't have any available to ship this week. So the Replacements consist of two Barred Rocks, two Light Brahmas, and two Golden Buffs.

The chicks are currently sharing the coop with the Original Six Four. The coop is divided in half with lattice (the original intention was to separate the meat chickens from the egg chickens, and one side is empty now that the meaties are in the deep freeze). Since the chicks are small enough to slip through the partition, they're in the old dog crate that was converted into a brooder. The Originals were very curious about their new flock mates, and Sassy even woke up from her nap to check out all the chirping.

Hopefully having them in the same area where they can see each other will make integrating the Replacements into the Originals a smooth process. That won't happen for several more weeks until the chicks get closer in size to the big girls.

I only had a few minutes to watch the new chicks after dunking their beaks in water and closing them up in their brooder. They all seemed active and a few made a beeline for the food. One even managed to hop out of the crate, but it didn't get too far before it was apprehended.

My vermin-trapping efforts have not been successful. Apparently vermin aren't attracted to pot roast or apply jelly. Tonight I'll bait the trap with some leftover cooked chicken.