We ordered this group of hens back around the beginning of May but had to wait for them to hatch. The one Belgian Blue is a replacement for a dud we received in our previous order (nuff said 'bout that).
They came out of their eggs Sunday June 5th, got shoved in a box Monday June 6th and shipped Overnight from Myer Hatchery in Cleveland Ohio to us in Melbourne Florida. We got a call Tuesday morning around 11am from the West Melbourne Post Office. The lady on the phone was super-excited to tell us our baby chickens had arrived. We leaped into action and in less than half an hour the new babies were at P2 and relaxing in their new suite (aka Brooder Box).
We put the brooder together the previous Friday so we'd have everything in readiness for the new girls to arrive. Here is the unboxing, thankfully everyone arrived ALIVE!
We've been shooting videos and photos as fast as we can because these little girls will grow so fast. Just two days out of the egg the little Belgian Blue is already showing wing tip feathers. At four days old they'll be double their original size.
The egg in one of the videos is just for size reference, this is a Bantam chicken egg, approximately the same size egg our birds came from.
The new babies were so glad to finally be home. It's traumatic to come out of your egg and jump on an overnight flight, they were exhausted and napped frequently Tuesday afternoon. We put them to bed around 8pm Tuesday night and they all slept for 12-hours straight.
BANTAM EGG SHOWN FOR SIZE REFERENCE ONLY
We had stormy weather on Wednesday and were swarming in wild Peafowl when I was shooting videos and photos. The new babies seemed unfazed by the thunder, Peafowl and various rooster calls in the air. The peeping from baby chickens is so sweet and this time of their life passes all too quickly. They go from peeping to their quiet "chortling" conversations very quickly.
PHOTOS FROM DAY ONE, TWO AND THREE
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| The box that brought "Teeny Hens" to P2 |
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| Naps Happen, they're walking along then, BAM, blacked out, tired |
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| Is this OK? |
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| More napping |
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| Wholesale mid afternoon blackout nap (learned it from me ;-) |
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| Under the warmth of the heat lamp, 95-105 degrees F depending on Variac setting |
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| Feathered feet, how cute is that? |
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| "Boo" is the only Belgian Blue in this batch of hens |
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| "P E E P !" |
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| GLAMOUR SHOT, BLUE-GREEN :-) |
THURSDAY JUNE 9TH
It's now their third day at P2, everyone has figured out the feeding dish and the water bowl. At first we had a little trouble getting them to drink but they figured it out (like all their kin that were here before them).
All the baby hens got up around 8am. They sleep in a heap under a "Mama Hen" brooder heater at night, it's a comfy chicken baby temperature of 99-degrees F under the heater. We took turns checking on the babies every 3-to-4 hours during the night just to make sure nobody staggered out, got lost and could not find their way back to the warm spot. No problems, these hens love to sleep.
DYED CHICKENS
Today, we experimented with putting food coloring on wing tips of three of the Teeny Silkies. Thus:
Green-Left, Green-Right, and Blue-Green were named temporarily. We'll watch to see how the food coloring holds up as the little peeps feather-out.
BEDTIME FOR BABY CHICKENS
I love putting the babies to bed at night. I turn off their red heat lamp and one by one put the babies under the heater. Of course one or two run back out but after several tries they realize the heat is where I'm putting them and eventually they stay in their sleeping area. In about 5-minutes the babies go from awake running all over to under Mama-hen heater, blacked out.
To get the babies to stay under the brooder heater we need to reduce the red heat lamp to minimum (chicks love red). With the light this low it's difficult to shoot video but iPhone captured the event of putting the tiny hens to bed for the night. After the camera stopped it took about 10 seconds for all peeping to cease, the group blacked out. They were suddenly in pre-warmed chip fluff with the 100 degree heat coming off the heater plate above them. It's the perfect place for teeny baby hens to spend the night dreaming of chicken stuff.
