Introducing The Peepers

These are The Peepers; our three adorable new baby chicks.

The one with white spots is a Plymouth Barred Rock named Dred Rock. The black one is a Black Orpington named Manu (this means "bird in Maori, and she is named thus because our older orpington chook, Sparrow, has a basic-type-bird name!) and the red/brown chick is a Rhode Island Red called Barbara. (We thought she was a Barnevelder "Barbara the Barnevelder", but she's obviously not. So now she is Barbara the Impostor. lol)

When we went out to the hatchery to choose them, we were expecting to get full-grown birds at least at point-of-lay. Unfortunately another lady arrived the day before us with 4 cars and took most all of the big birds! So instead we got to choose from the babies - the 6 week old chicks - and I must admit they all looked pretty similar to me to start with. Just a writhing peeping running mass of ugly teenage chicken feathers!

Barbara (the RIR) came from the outdoor pen, while the other two were both still in the brood hutch with lighting and heating. The breeder (Jamie from Avonstour Hatchery) used a board slid through a slot to separate the selected chick from the bunch, then opened the door to catch them. You can hold a chick on one hand.

Jamie gave us directions to a local feed merchant, but we got lost and decided to go home as the chicks were tiring in the car on the hot day (even with air con). Once at home, I thanked my lucky stars that we still had George's hutch. George is a lop-earred bunny that lives with my step-son, and was supposed to travel between houses with him on turn-about weekends. But he only visited once. I think step-son got put off once George peed on him in the car! With the hutch it meant I could pop the chicks safely into quarantine without them being at risk of a severe pecking from the bigger chooks.

Next, water. I gave them a water dish and they bumped into it, got frightened and ran away over and over. Silly peepers. It took them 6 hours to figure out it was full of water. But what to feed them? I knew that the layers pellets my big gals eat was unsuitable, as the pellets are too big for little beaks and they contain too much calcium, and that could cause kidney problems in chicks. I got online and messaged Terry Golson from hencam.com, who assured me that a couple of days on layers pellets wouldn't hurt their kidneys.

To get the pellets small enough for tiny beaks, I put a cup of pellets into the food processor, and threw in a small handful of cat biscuits to increase the protein percentage. Bingo! A suitable temporary chick starter feed. Hungry peepers gave their approval. Of course, that is once they overcome their fear of the big blue feed scoop!