We Never Planned to Get More Chickens

It was probably in late February or early March when Chick Days began at Tractor Supply. I kept saying “Friends don’t let friends go to TSC during Chick Days” and I actually thought Chick Days had ended.

Vince took off work yesterday and we took a little road trip. We were just coming into San Saba, which is about 35 miles from our house. There had been a hardware/dollar type store on the right but it had closed a good while ago. As we were driving in, Vince said “IS THAT A TRACTOR SUPPLY?” Yes! TSC had moved into the building. Yes, it was really a Tractor Supply! Vince said “On our way back, we can stop there!” I said “What if they have chickens?” He assured me Chick Days were over and they wouldn’t have any chickens. I needed a couple of new hose end sprayers and some fertilizer for the peach trees so I was happy to stop.

On our way home, we stopped in and while I was headed to the back of the store, I heard them .. chirping, adorable baby chicks. VINCE! Come and see!

At first, I was looking at the picture on the Wyandotte label. Then Vince read about the Marans and he said “Aren’t these the ones that lay the really dark eggs?” Oh, yes .. they are! He said (HE SAID!) “Let’s get some”. I kinda wasn’t sure but I said ok so we got 8 of them.

We got home, got them all set up, went in the house and I started looking at the pictures I had taken while at TSC.

It’s hard to see but it says Red Laced Blue Wyandotte! I don’t have any of my own pictures to share but please (really . . PLEASE do it) google “Red Laced Blue Wyandotte” and search images. These chickens are so gorgeous. A while back, this picture was going around Facebook. I’m still not sure there was no photoshopping but honestly, these chickens are so gorgeous!

I said “Vince! I want to go back to San Saba and get some of the Red Laced Wyandottes!” He looked at me like I was totally crazy. He said “NO!” I showed him the pictures. He said . . let’s go. So, back to San Saba!

Chicken math is so hard . . even for an engineer. We had previously bought 8 of the Marans but Vince decided to get 10 of the Myandottes and he said . . heck, let’s just get more Marans and we’ll end up with 10 of each but he told the lady he wanted 4 of the Marans so we now have 22 baby chicks.

We got them all set up in the round tub, the looked at the weather and it was going to be 42° last night so we moved them to a larger tub so we could put the brooder in the tub and they would still have room to move around.

In the process of moving them, I realized there were several with vent issues (dried poop blocking the pooper) so I had to get some warm water, soak their behinds in a warm bath, clean them up and then blow dry them. Oh . . the life of a chicken mama! 

If our luck is like it usually is, over half of these new chicks will be roosters and we’ll only keep one Marans rooster and one Wyandotte rooster so in a few months, we’ll probably have less than half of these.

Last night, we were exhausted but we had a very fun day and we’re so excited about our new chicks.