Finally got my chicks, yesterday. I say finally because it took me multiple attempts.
Chick days officially started last Wednesday, at Tractor Supply. Unfortunately our local hadn't gotten their shipment in. "Maybe Friday, maybe Monday"
Ok, would be going through on Monday, no biggie. I could check then.
Stopped on Monday morning on the way to the torture roo... I mean... Eye doctor. No chicks, but signs up. Maybe they knew which ones they're getting and they're getting ready for them.. but no one handy to ask who didn't look really busy.
No biggie. I could check the one where we're going.
No chicks there either.
At this point I began to seriously consider ways to just... order ten chicks and find somewhere to offload the extra four.
So I called on the way back to check if the fluffy little buggers had been delivered during the day.
"Thank you for calling Tractor Supply how can I help you?" "I was just calling to see if your chicks had been delivered today?" " .... *huge sigh* not until Wednesday." "Ok, that's all I needed, thank you!"
Somehow I think he had been answering that question a lot.
So yesterday I put together my curbside orders (can I just say that, not having the benefit of being able to work from home, curbside pickup is my absolute favorite thing to have come out of the insanity that was the Covid panic? You mean I can get all of my groceries without having to come within three feet of more than one person??? Yes, please!) and after I got off work at noon hied myself north through the hazards of tumbleweeds and insane drivers. Managed to dodge both of those.
First stop: Tractor Supply.
Walked through the door and heard peeping! Yes!
Seriously, this errand had begun to take on the appearance of a mythical quest, in my mind. I wondered if I was going to have to answer a riddle or defeat an evil witch when I got to the chick enclosure.
But no, I just had to decide whether I wanted the two sex-linked hybrids they had, or the "premium" olive eggers. I'll pass on paying six bucks a chick. So I got three each of the Golden Sex Links and the Amberlinks.
Not ones I had dealt with before, but sex-linked chicks means no chance someone paid *just* a little to little attention and a rooster chick snuck in. I can't have roosters in town, so that part was fairly important to me. I'm also not supposed to have more than three chickens, but no one is actually counting the chickens people have as long as the neighbors aren't complaining. People do actually care if there's a rooster.
So I got my chicks, and then moved to a curbside pickup spot for my order there (I get my dog food and cat food from TS as well) and did a quick google of the ones I had gotten. Both are Rhode Island Red crosses, and we get along well with those, so I'm not unhappy. The info said they're both docile and friendly. Uh... yeah.
Anyway, chicks are here, introductions to the dogs have begun. The chicks give zero fucks, the dogs are *super* excited.
I'm not sure yet if Wubba is having an "omg it squeaks and it flaps and I want to nom on it" reaction or if he's having a "it's a BAYBEE" reaction... it could go either way at this point. I'm not sure *he* knows either. What I do know is that I had to get on to him for growling at Scaredy Pup when I was calling SP in for his initial introduction. Being protective of the little floofs is fine. Trying to keep SP from doing something I've told him to do is not.
Pretty sure at this point SP's mind is on "small, floofy, makes noise... want to chase"... he's that type. If he sees a laser dot he will snap into focus and go after it like it insulted his mother or owes him money.
My grand plan of brooding the chicks in the coop also did not work. A couple of nights of super cold temperatures showed me that the setup was only giving me about twenty degrees above ambient. That's not good enough with the teensy chicks. So I set things up in the middle bedroom (which is otherwise known as "that room I stack things in to get them out of the way) and they're happily peeping away in there... driving the dogs and cats nuts through the closed door. Everyone should settle down eventually.
Based on wing feather development these are a little over a week old, so I should start seeing eggs around mid June... and then I can stop paying stupid prices for them.
