The Golden Girls and Baby Chicks

One of the first things I wanted when we started the Farm talk was chickens… 

This was as much of a shock to me as it was to most anyone that knows me. There was just something about it that seemed so natural when we decided this is the life we wanted. We had heard that raising chickens was so easy and so worth it for the eggs. We know absolutely nothing about chickens outside of what people told us, what I could find on the internet, and the 100s of YouTube videos that we watched about raising chickens. 

All I knew is that I wanted 4 chickens and I wanted to name them after The Golden Girls. Dorthy, Rose, Sophia, and Blanche would be the most spoiled and well loved chickens in all of the county.  

We decided that we wanted to order from a hatchery because we wanted to make sure that we got females. Now, we also knew that there is a chance that a rooster could be sent, but we felt like that the company that has been doing this for many years would be a little better than trying to figure it out at the local farm and feed store. From our research it was shared that if you want 4 you better order 6 cause death with baby chicks is inevitable. So we ordered 6… this is getting out of control already. 6 baby chicks… What are we thinking? That is a lot of eggs to be eating on the daily.    

Side Note: A few weeks later we started going to a new church near our home. This church was talking about all the different ways they help out in the community. One of the things they do is help a local food pantry. This food pantry just so happens to be close to our house… I wasn’t even sure it was still open by the looks of it. I learned that they took local chicken farmer eggs and produce! I just thought this was so awesome. We are also planting a veggie garden and there will be no way that we can eat it all before it goes bad.

Ok back to the chickens…. If the 6 chickens lay an egg a day then we will have about 30-40 eggs a week! That is a lot but our little family of 3 can easily go through an 18 pack a week. That is still only about a dozen a week to donate…I needed to do more! That line always gets me into trouble. So how was I going to make sure we have plenty to donate and still have some for the family… get more chickens of course.  

Our house came with a permanent chicken coop that can handle 4-6 chickens just fine. The house also came with a movable chicken coop that the previous family used as a bunny coop. We decided that the movable coop could handle 4 additional chickens. So off to the local farm and feed store. These chicks were going to be Abby’s chicks and she would get to name them. She was excited and I was praying that they all wouldn’t be called Sprinkle and Sparkle Butt. She picked all 4 names on the way home. They actually varied in color and we could tell them apart. Their names are Ginger, Evie, Biscuit, and Peep. We brought them in the house to live as it was still pretty cold in the garage. These chicks had been alive for a week and eating and drinking water at the store. There was nothing really new we had to do but get the heating plate warm. To be honest listening to the baby peep was super sweet … at first. One of the most interesting things was when it got dark in the house at night and we turned off the lights they settled in for the night and you don’t hear from them until it starts getting light outside in the morning.  

These sweet little fluffy butts quickly get big and loud!  

They never got smelly in the house. We moved them into the garage at 3 weeks. We kept them in 2 ft x 4 ft horse troughs. Adam was able to track two down for the price of a new one. One would hold Abby’s chicks and the other would hold the Golden Girls. Once they are done holding baby chicks they will be moved to the garden for growing herbs!!!

It was time for The Golden Girls to arrive. The local post office called to let us know that they arrived and are ready for pick up.  So we loaded up in the pick up and headed into town. I was so excited to pick them up.  As soon as we walked into the post office you could hear their little peeps. They brought us the box and we headed straight for the car.  I was nervous to open the box in the car. There was a very good chance that one or two of the chickens didn’t make the trip. When I opened that box and 6 little heads popped up to look at me I was just elated. The day these chicks are hatched they are put in a box and shipped. They are shipped with no water or food.  Fun fact: baby chicks can live up to 3 days with no food or water. If they are raised by a hen they stay under mom until all the other chicks have hatched before they go get food and water together.  

Once we got home it was time to put them in there brooder with food and water. You take a baby chick and dip their beak in the water and then you watch them take their first drink. They quickly learn where the food is and they have their first bit of food. You only have to show one and that one will teach the rest. The instincts just take over … it is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We watch them for a little bit and watch them run around and figure out the water, food, and heat source.  

As the weeks have gone by and we watch both sets grow it really has been pretty amazing. We as a family have had a good time working with the chickens together. I have found it particularly cool how they figure out the “pecking” order and how they just adapted to new surroundings. I can’t wait to see how they do when they go outside full time.  

Stay tuned for more updates!