Last Wednesday, our little chicks arrived here at the farm! (Yes, I realize this post is overdue, but we've been crazy busy since then, so please forgive me.)

They came all packaged up like this and were chirping up a storm at the post office when we got there to pick them up.

They are so precious and tiny!

The above pic was taken this week. In it, you can see how their true feathers begin to form at the tips of their wings, replacing their "furry" baby feathers. The beautiful chick pictured here is an Araucana. She will grow up to lay blue eggs.

For the first two weeks, we are keeping them in the barn. For this, we used our meat chicken tractor. We removed the metal roof, and rolled it into the barn to sit atop a tarp. The tarp was then covered by empty feed bags and pine shavings. To protect the chicks from predators (mainly, the cats) we lay the metal back atop the wagon when we're not around.

Next week, the chicks will be moved out onto the grass and housed within some chick netting up close to the house where we can keep a close eye on them.

Most of these chicks will be added to our laying flock. The others are to be sold at about 12-weeks as backyard hens for others. If you didn't get a chance to pre-order but would still like to reserve a hen or two, shoot me an email @ ashley@broodfarm.com. We do still have a couple that we would be willing to sell.