The Broody Momma: Off to Late Start

Well here goes my first attempt at a real blog. I was hoping to start this on Sunday, but my family caught a death-like virus, so I've been out of commission.

Anyway, it all started last summer when I was pet sitting for my friend Talina, who was down at The Farm for her homebirth. Talina basically has a small zoo in her backyard, a dog, a few cats, some bunnies, and chickens. The chickens were awesome. They were very friendly, gentle, and sweet. They even let my then 3 year old daughter pick them up. After caring for them for a few weeks, I decided that owning chickens was something I really wanted to do.

Fast forward to this year...

I did tons of research as to which breed of chicks we wanted to get. I spent way too much time on .mypetchicken.com playing around with their breed selection tool! And I ultimately decided that I wanted to get Ameraucanas. They are cold hardy, good layers, and friendly. They also lay blue/green eggs!

I like to support local businesses, and I didn't want to buy from a large hatchery so I found a local farm to get my chicks from. Through facebook I started conversing back and forth with Jennifer from Graff Hill Farms for a while about acquiring some Ameraucana chicks. Since only breeders can provide true Ameraucanas, I ended up getting Easter Eggers, which are basically Ameraucanas, just not pure bred.

It took about 3 weeks for the eggs to hatch, and then the day had finally come....time to pick up the chicks! The kids and I got into the car and headed over to the farm to pick up the cute little fluff balls. I let Sarah pick which ones she wanted, and we brought all 6 of them home in a small cardboard box.
When we got home we transferred them to their "brooder" which is a large cardboard box with pine shavings on the bottom, a chick waterer, a feeder, a brooder light to keep them warm, and a thermometer so I can keep tabs on the temperature of the brooder. I ended up just buying a small reptile thermometer from a pet store, and it works great.

We promptly named them upon my dear daughter's request, even though i suggested waiting until they are bigger...since we don't know which are males and which are females. But we named them anyway...it is easier to tell them apart if they're named. We decided to go the traditional route and give them old lady names.

Meet the chicks...