My Little Farming Blog: Major Chick Update April 2020

We have more chicks now, than ever. We had the original four Rhode Island Reds that are six weeks old, outside, really, outside, in the sun, in their run and making the adjustment from coop to being in the grass.

Plus, a bit of a tragedy yesterday. One of the 1-week old Rhode Island Red chicks died. Actually, two of them seemed sickly when we picked them up. My bad. I received a call on Wednesday night that the RIRs had arrived at the store. I didn't realize that the store had called, and so the little RIRs sat there until Friday morning. The Barred Rock did arrive Friday morning. I know better than to let chicks stay at the store in shavings and under a heat lamp for any length of time. They will eat the small shavings and will also get too hot and get dehydrated. A lot these "store chicks" will get pasty butt too, meaning that they are dehydrated/too hot. Although none of the chicks that I picked up had pasty butt, several of the RIR were lethargic, were not eating or drinking well, and they were stretching out their little necks while opening up their mouths really wide as though there was something stuck in their crops. So my bad for not checking my phone for calls from the store this past week.

Sensing that we were going to lose at least two of the six new RIR chicks, we kinda went into panic mode trying to figure out what we were going to do. Called the store only to be told that all chicks were sold from that batch they received in. That come Monday morning they MIGHT have a few left that people might not pick up. Rather than risk it, I put in an order for three more chicks to arrive in early May. Then we found a farm on the other side of town that had some three week old chicks, both RIR and Barred Rock. As we were arranging to drive across town to pick up some, the store called me back to say that they had three of the RIR's from the batch this past week. Did I want them. Yes, thank you! I picked them up and they seem fine. Then, headed over to pick up a couple of the 3-week old Barred Rocks from across town.

When they first arrived, I thought, no way that these are three weeks old. Perhaps two weeks. But, now that they are out and moving around in the quarantine pen, they do appear to be about three or four weeks old. In a few weeks, we can either put them out into the coop with the older RIRs. or mix them into the large flock in the brooder pen.

So, yep. We have a LOT of chicklets right now! Oh, and by the way, the other RIR that seemed sick and we thought might die, is doing much better today. Eating, drinking, pooping and running around with the larger flock. That means we now have eight 1-week old Rhode Island Reds, four 6-week old Rhode Island Reds, two 3-week old Barred Rocks and six 1-week old Barred Rocks. This should be interesting for the next few weeks into June!