Bringing Home Baby....Chicks

My friend Stephie gave me a call, saying she wanted to go pick up some baby chicks, and we decided to ride together.

My husband wasn't as "enthusiastic", initially as I was, so I called him on the way to the Tractor Supply to let him know I'd be bringing home little chickies that afternoon.

I'm one stubborn lady, so he knew better than to talk me out of it...I already had visions of the girls picking out their own baby chicks, and the picture of sweetness it would be to see them collect eggs from our yard every day.

The clerk at the Tractor Supply was a young teenage girl, and she was visibly nervous as I peppered her with chicken questions.
Turns out the "chicken expert" had gone home for the day, but I didn't drive 45 minutes to come home empty handed.

I tried to figure out which chickens were "pullets" (baby hens - future egg layers) and which were "straight run" (males and females - no way to know which is which).
The pullets looked all the same, like a sea of carnival gold fish, each of them little tufts of hopping golden fuzz.
The straight run were all different colors, sizes and breeds.
The store required a minimum 6 chick purchase, so I picked out (what I thought to be) 4 pullets to be sure I got some egg layers, and 2 straight run just because they were SO pretty.

We drove home with happy meal shaped boxes full of baby chicks and my oldest daughter named one for herself, "popcorn" and my 2 year old named one "cup."
I realized then, that I could never eat a chicken that had a name, but definitely looked forward to some tasty eggs!

At home I popped them all into a big cardboard box with paper shreds on the bottom, a small water dish and feeder and a heat lamp.

They spent the first night in the bathroom and I felt like a new mother, checking on them every couple of hours through the night to make sure they were still breathing!

We kept the temp around 90-100 degrees the first week, then lowered the temperature down by 5 degrees every week until warm, hardy feathers replaced their peach fuzz.

Most people had told me to expect to lose one or two due to sickness, etc., but they all thrived and soon were old enough to move out of the cardboard box, and let explore the outdoors!