New Baby Chicks at Ruple Farms!

Steve and I took the plunge a little early this year!

He had gone to Runnings with Mila (I went to Wegmans with Ava) and told me that they had new baby chickens available! We opted to stop in Saturday to see what they had. Then our plan was to get ourselves ready and set up before actually bringing the chickens home.

We saw several different breeds, and I fell in love with the Lavender Orpington.

Right in the middle - that purple girl. 

We went back Sunday, and unfortunately, many of the baby chicks were already sold! The one lavender orpington they had left was also gone. 

We ended up bringing home 5 Rhode Island Red chicks and 1 Black Australorp, which is a new breed to us. They are known for their shiny black feathers and are excellent winter-laying hens. 

Here are the 6 we brought home! 

Since we came back late and missed many of the chickens, we placed an order for this week.

We ordered two Lavender Orpingtons, two Sapphire Gems and two Silverlaced Wyandottes. So 12 new chickens!

We got our set up ready:

Pulled this big bin out of the shed

Got it situated in our basement

Got their bedding ready to go

They got to pick out their own chickens

I asked if we could split the baby chicks into two boxes - 3 each. 

Obviously each one of my girls had to have her own box to carry!

Home!

They loved the babies. They'd go "check" on them every couple of hours. We had to remind them NOT to handle them TOO much or too roughly. I don't mind them handling them, so they are used to humans, but they are so tiny! 

We had to remind Ava to be gentle with these babies

We will keep them in our basement under the light (95 degrees for now - and then we will bring the temp down as they get older) for about 4 - 6 weeks. Once they have feathers, they will be able to flutter about, so we'll need to put a baby gate overtop of the bin. 

We will move them outside after that and put them together in the small coop, that is out in our big coop. This allows the resident chickens to get used to the new chicks, but with a barrier between them. Then after a few weeks of that, we can let them out and mix them up. They will figure out a pecking order (pun intended!)

We will have about 34 chickens by the end of this week!