Yesterday I went to the feed store to buy a bag of chicken feed.
BIG MISTAKE.
While I was there I noticed the feed store had just received a shipment of baby chicks. I walked around aimlessly for about 20 minutes trying to decided if I should bring a few home.
THEY WERE SO CUTE.
And I didn’t want to leave them there all alone. What if someone creepy bought them? Or worse yet someone who just wanted to steal their eggs, chop off their heads and make chicken soup out of them? These were babies… Pet chickens. Chicken you eat comes from the store right? Not the PET {okay feed} STORE.
So after grilling the cashier as to the sex of the chicks over and over again I ended up going home with a bag of feed. And a 75 gallon stock tank. No chicks. Yet.
But…
As soon the The Girl Who Thinks She’s A Bird and Monkey Boy were finished with school we raced back to the feed store.
This is Squeakers {looking very tired}. Squeakers got her name because she squeaked all the way home from the store. She is a Sex-Link chicken and the smallest in our new flock.
This is Buffy. She is a Buff Orpington.
Big Martha. After little Martha ditched us last fall we decided we needed a replacement for her. Only this time we bought the full sized Barred Plymouth Rock. No more bantams.
The Girl named this cutie Peanut. Peanut is an Easter Egger. I’m hoping for pink or blue eggs from this little chick. We’ll see.
Aren’t they sooooo cute?
Will YOU be getting baby chicks this year? If so will you raise them as pets or are you planning to eat them?
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens
Jen says
Can’t wait!!! I’m getting giddy thinking about it!! So far we have had chickens just for eggs, but then the most awful thing happened, we ended up with three roosters from a straight run purchase last spring and one of those roosters decided to try to attack my son, so we got rid of the trio. This year I will pay the little extra for the sexed chicks. I have been selling eggs at my kids school to the teachers, secretary, janitor, etc, I also have a friend that buys them and of course we eat them. I think this year we are going to try meat birds as well. It’s a great lesson for the kids as to where their food comes from and grocery store chicken is just not the same as fresh from your own yard chicken. We are also raising a cow for beef and had a milking goat last year, that we won’t be doing again, it took a lot of scheduling and it’s very hard to go on any out of town excursions when you are that scheduled, milking twice a day at the same time everyday, although it was nice to never have to run to the store for milk!
Desi says
We have 4 sex link birds and they are great egg layer. We also have 3 easter eggers, ours lay blue eggs, maybe you’ll get lucky and get a pink laying one. We used to have a barred plymoth rock chicken but she turned out to be a he and now lives at my in-law’s house, he is a HUGE bird though. So much fun. Did you order the other birds that you talked about earlier this year?
Mavis says
Desi, are the sex-link birds nice?
Yes, I still have the other birds on order. I should probably cancel my order. Either that or open a chicken commune.
Desi says
My birds are nice. They like to follow me around looking for scraps. You could always sell your eggs if you get too many.
Robin from the Roost says
CUTE!!! No chickens here, they aren’t allowed in our little town. Crazy as it is. But if I could… have chickens three of four hens. Then they would be on bug duty, and gaurd duty, and egg duty. Other than that they would have a happy life of sunning, and resting and shall I say, just ‘laying’ around.
Kari says
Sadly, we are moving and just had to get rid of our chickens. I see your baby girls, and I want little chicks of my own again. They are too precious!
Helen in Meridian says
My peep show and hot chicks arrived this week in the form of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Don’t they know they need 2 sizes larger in those bikinis?
Mavis says
You are funny.
CouponCook says
I got 4 chickens, a coop, and a pen for Christmas! I’m told that I’m a strange girl. One year I asked for and received a new bread maker and a cordless drill for Christmas. Anywhoo. I plan to figure out which one of the free loaders isn’t laying and put it in a big ole’ pot of chicken soup. I’m going to give them a few more months to make sure they are fully mature. and then the culling will begin. Sorry vegans Chickens aren’t really pets to me. We grew up hunting and fishing here.