The Arrival

At 6:30 this morning I got a call from the post office that Los Pollos Dinamicos had arrived, actually she said "your chickens are here". Renae and Felix picked them up before school and after dropping Felix off, Renae nursed them after the chicks long trip. She said one of the four chicks seemed a little sluggish and out of sorts, but after some food and water she (I will say 'she' and 'her' and 'the girls' optimistically) was fine.
We don't have any names yet though Felix suggested- for no particular chick- the names: squeaky, scary, black bolt, and a made up word I can't remember. There is one that appears to be dominant, but we'll see. One of the Easter Eggers likes to stick her head in the food dish and just keep it there. That's not the dominant one. She's not necessarily eating, she just seems comfortable that way. You can see it below- doesn't she look comfortable?
After I got home and checked on them, I noticed the lamp that holds the chicks infrared heat bulb was really hot. I really should have known that the lamp I had wouldn't be able to withstand the power that the heat bulb consumes. Out of fear of being the idiot who burns down his garage to keep some animals warm, I shut it down and rushed out to get a proper lamp. When I got back, the chicks were huddled together in a corner but were fine after I set the lamp up.

In Preparation

The chicks are due to arrive either Wednesday or Thursday, so this weekend we took the time to get everything prepared for their delivery. We decided on the garage rather than one of the spare rooms. We found two large salad boxes at Costco and taped those together for the pen. I was going to cut the adjoining walls, but Renae suggested that it would make a good perch (as our mock chick demonstrates). The other supplies we picked up last week from The Grange in Issaquah. While we were looking around we came across some chicks that they were selling. They had about fifty or so. In one of the cages we witnessed the dark side of chickens. There was a gang of what I presume to be young hooligan types, some street thugs perhaps, pecking mercilessly on what I initially thought was a dead chick. The chick wasn't dead but probably wished she were. Renae went and got an employee; he gingerly pulled the chick out and said that he was taking her to the "chick hospital" which I understood as a euphemism for the knackers. But wow, chickens are brutal!
At The Grange we picked up nearly everything we needed: white pine shavings, infrared bulb, feed, waterer, and feeder. Today we picked up some grit, to aid digestion, and a couple 1/2" dowels for the chicks to roost on. We need just a mason jar for the waterer and then we will be all set. We still have to come up with four names.

It Begins

After years of kicking the idea around, hemming and hawing, should we or shouldn't we, we've finally decided: Yes, backyard chickens. Our chicks have been ordered and are due to arrive just after Memorial Day. We ordered two Delawares:











And two Easter Eggers:


If the question you are asking yourself is "OMG, aren't they cute?", the answer is yes.
For the first four weeks we will keep them warm in a large cardboard box, probably in a corner of the dining room. Better yet, one of the spare bedrooms. We'll see, I have to run it by Renae. In that time I will be finishing the coop, which will be the storage shed behind the garage. It is only cleaned out right now. I will have to put in the roosts, waterer and feeder, and nesting boxes. I will also have to construct a frame to attach the chicken wire to in what will be their pen. At this point though, all I have to show is what our chickens will look like.