Thursday, June 23, 2011

Peepers! Peepers!

It's been almost 2 weeks since I got the call...

Wednesday the 15th we went to Top Crop in Cranbrook, bought the waterer, the feeder box, pine shavings, feed (non medicated chick starter), a heat lamp and the bulbs. We thought the bulbs and balast were crazy expensive. We thought we'd check at Home Depot.

Saturday the 18th we went back to Cranbrook to catch a movie, I figured we'd stop at Home Depot first. Low and behold, they had the red heat lamp and the balast. We bought both for a third of the price that we'd paid at Top Crop. So we'll just return the over priced items.

Sunday June 19th, pick-up day! Went to Cranbrook first, had to return the unwated items, picked up a few things and headed to Fort Steele. Once we got to Fort Steele we gave Tyler a call to let him know that we were on site but that we wanted to walk around the site for a bit. So after a nice lunch at the International Hotel we called Tyler again so that we could meet up with him. We met Tyler at the barn next to the stables, he led us into the barn. Boy did we ever have one heck of a surprise! The week old little fuzz-butts I thought we were going to be picking up turned out to be 5 week old chicks! Fully feathered at that! The chicks were $8.50 each so 16 of them totaled $138.00. It was more than I had expected however, I was happy to pay a local historical town for these chicks. Not only were they local, 5 weeks old so less likely to die and they could be sexed a little easier. Our plan to put the chicks in a rubber maid bin was changed instantly. They graduated to the dogs crates! Never thought I'd use them again.

What an interesting few days it's been! The chicks are quite interactive! the first day, we checked on them a number of times in the first few hours, then we went a few hours checked on them one last time then it was bed time for us. The next morning, we checked on the chicks before work. They'd huddled up together to sleep, cleared out a bunch of pine shavings, filled the water dish with pine shavings and of course, added pine shavings to their food!





Chanteclec and Barred Plymouth Rock chicks



Today (June 22nd, 2011), I changed the chick water when I got home from work and one of the chicks "escaped". I took the opportunity to take her out side and let her roam around. At first I had her out on  by the dog kennel. Although she wasn't too nervous the pups were barking their heads off so I picked her up and we found a quiter location away from the dogs. She walked around, did the chicken scratch and ate her fill of bugs... I think there is a colony out there that's short a few ants....



Saturday, June 11, 2011

Chicks! already ???

I got a quite unexpected call this evening! My chicks will be available for pick-up on Sunday! I'm very excited!!! Lee and I have agreed on getting 8 Chanteclers and 8 Barred Plymouth Rock!! So we are going to Fort Steele to pick up the chicks on Sunday! I need a few things, a chick feeder, a waterer, and a brooder box. Then we need to build the coop!

Lee finally found us a trailer to borrow! so We'll pick up the trailer in the morning, head to Cranbrook, get our shed kit, stop in at Fort Steel, pick up the chicks and come home!!

Stay tuned for more and pics!