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Speck Has Sisters!

We never dreamed it would be hard to get baby chicks here.  In Missouri, they were easy to find.  Lots of places had them and had lots of “varieties”.  When we realized that the only place in our whole county that seems to sell baby chicks is Tractor Supply and everyone knew a new shipment was to arrive this morning, I wasn’t real hopeful that we’d get any from this shipment.  Last night I checked McMurray and Ideal Hatcheries and found it would be mid April to mid May before they would have pullets again.

I was in the house ironing Vince’s shirts when I saw him coming down the driveway.  He was driving very slowly, taking the curves ever so gently so I knew he had baby chicks.  I ran out to meet him and he had the biggest smile on his face!

Eight little girls!  Aren’t they adorable?  We have no idea what we got except they’re supposed to be pullets.  The folks at Tractor Supply weren’t sure what they are.  They told us they’re all pullets but the yellow ones look like Gold Star pullets, where Gold Star boys are more of a solid whitish yellow.  We’ll see what happens.  If it crows, . . well, we’ll have to talk about that.  I’m scared of roosters.

I was so excited!  Vince said “Most wives are happy to get diamonds but you’re happier with baby chicks!”  Yep, but the truth is . . by the time we build the chicken coop and feed 8 chickens, we could just about buy a small diamond!

There won’t be much sewing going on.  I keep running to check on them.  I just love having them!  They’re eating well and drinking.  I hope our results with these are as good as they were with our other chickens.

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Comments

  1. Nothing like baby chicks! I still laugh, last year I was at Tractor Supply and they had “clearance” chicks for $1 each. They were getting too old and I guess they didn’t want them flying around the store. A customer asked “what’s wrong with ’em?” Of course, there was nothing wrong with them so he took a few of them home. Enjoy!

  3. Oh I’m so glad you got more chickens. I missed your chicken posts! Would love some of my own but DH says no and he doesn’t get a say in much around here so I let him win this battle.

  5. If this were facebook, I’d be clicking (or is that clucking?) “LIKE”
    Congrats on your new additions 🙂

  6. I had a rooster as a pet when I was young…He was a great protecter, would not let anyone spank me. 😉 He was a great pet until he found hens and figured out I was not his real girl…from then on he was king of the chickenyard.

  8. It will be fun if they are all different colors, easier to name too. 😉
    If you think one is a rooster, start giving him treats to make him friendly, then should be no problem at all. Roosters are protective but if you are part of the flock he will protect you too and not attack.
    No chickens for us this year, YET!!! But we do have baby geese coming in April. Can’t wait!!!!!!
    Hugs!!!!!

  9. Congratulations! They are so cute! I loved the stories about your chickens in Missouri so I can’t wait to see them grow up.

  10. yaaaa! gotta love baby chicks! love them lots so they will love you back! (I had some chickens that someone else raised and they were complete scaredy cats, which I hated!). I’m holding out for some quail in about a month (when it gets a little warmer here). I raised them a couple years ago, but lost the last of them when a storm literally blew their home a couple feet to where the grass wasn’t level and they escaped 🙁 And that pen is well over 200#, maybe 300#!! The metal roof acted like a sail I guess, LOL. I think I’m gonna put a wire bottom on it this time though! They won’t be able to dig into the ground, but I can give them dust bath boxes instead 🙂

  11. Congratulations
    I just have to smile at how excited you are about getting new chicks.
    imagine how your going to feel when you become a grand mother. LOL
    Looking forward to all your stories of the little ones growing up.

  12. They’re so cute! I’ve always thought baby chicks were about the cutest thing ever. Your maternal instinct is no doubt in high gear right now, but somehow I can’t see Speck being real excited about a bunch of chicken “sisters.” After all, you’re HIS mom and he probably doesn’t want to share you with a bunch of little fuzzy things.

  13. Awww, how cute! I was just thinking “Judy should know if she got chickens today”, and I came over to find this post 🙂

  16. YAY!! So glad you have new biddies! There’s nothing like them! We got 3 of the “Red Pullets” and 3 “Bantams” last Friday evening (in the snow lol). I just cannot NOT have chickens. We are even getting Roosevelt and Victoria back soon!

  17. This is so exciting! I am looking forward to hearing of all their antics.
    Trina

    • I would have ordered from either McMurray or Ideal. Ideal is here in TX, about three hours from us. 28 is a whole lot of chickens!

  21. Awesome Judy! I know how much you’ve missed the other ones. Chickens are the coolest critters on the farm! I’m surprised you only got 8, since you’ve got plenty of room now!

    By the way, if you want more in the future, Cackle Hatchery up in Lebanon MO is great. Especially with them being so close, shipping time is short. Any plans for ducks? Duck eggs are fabulous to bake with!

    • We only wanted 6 but figured we’d get 2 extra in case we lose any of them. Six chickens produce way more eggs than we need and since I won’t eat any of my chickens, by the time they stop laying and I get more, I’d eventually end up with way too many. I think our coop will be only big enough for about 12 chickens. No ducks. We don’t want to end up with too many mouths to feed.

  23. They are so cute…have you cuddled them? Congratulations Momma!

  24. Our babies were hatched the week b4 retreat. They are looking like teens now. I incubated these from my 6 girls and 2 Roos. Ihave Silkies and they are so cute. Not good layers but I have them 4 fun. We have Easter eggers and 8 others varieties for our layers. Don’t be afraid of the gentlemen, you just have to let them know you aren’t hurting their ladies. They let me do my chores, but I always have a stick handy just in case.

  28. For awhile we got chickens and I had golden ones. Instead of individual names, we called them the Golden Girls. I had a Rhode Island Red named Rhoda (original) and she would fly up on my arm when I stretched it out. The golden girls treated her badly believe it or not. We had Cochin ? (they have feathers on their legs and the rooster we called Colonel Baggypants. We should have called him Napoleon. And the other rooster, Cornflake…well, when he got spurs and started following me, then he finally made the mistake of following Russ and …well, Cornflake no more.

  32. So cute!!! I did a search for Texas craigslist to see if any of your neighbors had baby chicks, but the closest is Abilene (maybe not that close?) There is a Brownwood, TX classified website that has baby chicks. Gosh, it’s not like you can mail them (and even if you could, we wouldn’t)– they’d pretty much have to come from somewhere within driving, wouldn’t they?

    Someday I would like to have buff orpingtons.

  33. Look at that. I’m out of town one day and you get your chickens. I am so happy for you. I wish we were close enough that I could get your wonderful fresh eggs.

  34. My friend got hers through the mail! I don’t know the name of the supplier. Maybe you should consider that for the next time you need new chicks?

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