Store Peeps

A well timed visit to the feed store led to FarmerSpence discovering said feed store had received a large assortment of pullet chicks. After a quick discussion and some planning, he went back to the store to pick up a good number of chicks to help build hen numbers at the farm/pond coop. Many attempts were made to increase numbers via hatching eggs at the OurChickenLife coops but odds were never in favor for getting little hen babies.

Initially, 10 Americanas (likely easter eggers), "5 Brahma", and 5 Barred rock were purchased. At this time, only one chick had fuzzy feet as Brahma do. We realized that a mistake was made (store employee grabbed the wrong chicks!), and we were given 4 Sicilian Buttercups instead of Brahmas. FarmerSpence really wanted Brahmas so he went back to get 5 Brahmas. ExpectingStorms also convinced him to get 2 "Friendly, Quiet, GREAT LAYING" California Whites because they were very different from everything else in black, brown, red and blue! This ended up being 27 new babies in total.

After this point, we did have an unfortunate run with chick loss, as sometimes can happen with newly purchased or shipped chicks. It's very stressful being shipped and moved about and sometimes new chicks aren't fully/properly developed so don't make it after the first few days. FarmerSpence did treat the new babies for parasites, added electrolytes and took a lot of extra visits to give them hands on care. We lost a few Brahma, Buttercups and a Americana and the final count ended up 22 babies. The remaining started growing like little weeds and were doing wonderfully!

The Buttercups are an interesting little breed. They are unique in that they have a specially shaped comb that no other breed has, shaped like a cup. This little one below, who is probably a rooster, modeled for us.

The store peeps grew and grew! Some personalities were already starting to emerge. Those friendly Cali Whites were usually first in line when he opened the side door to do clean up and food refills. The barred rocks were right behind them.

Suddenly they were big enough to start integrating into the main farm flock. It was at this time we picked a few out to return to the OurChickenLife flock to represent the new breeds. We ended up taking both Cali Whites, a Brahma, Buttercup, Americana, and later that evening also added a Barred Rock.

The other 16 store peeps are now allowed out of the farm coop, and are still learning to find the coop each night. Won't be long before they are seen out and about with the rest of the flock on various cams on OurLifewithEwe, DashDucks and Rooville!