The Care and Feeding of Baby Chicks + Giveaway Winner Announced

Barred Rock and Silver Laced Wyandotte Chicks

Our baby chicks arrived at our local feed store this week. They are so cute and sweet. During the day we hear little peeps coming from our guest bedroom where they are currently residing. We chose breeds that make great backyard chickens  in terms of disposition and egg laying. The three we have gotten so far have all been named by our 3.5 year old. I would like to introduce you to Heart Kiss, Cookie, and Ice Cream.

  The breeds we chose are: 

Barred Rock, Ameraucana aka "Easter Egger", Silver Laced Wyandotte, and Gold Laced Wyandotte (arrives next weekend). The Ameraucana will give us beautiful blue/green eggs, and the others will be brown.

As adults they will look like this: 

Left to right: Barred Rock image via, Ameraucana via, Gold Laced Wyandotte via, Silver Laced Wyandotte via. Aren't they GORGEOUS! I can't wait to see them clucking around the lawn.

Well hello little day old Ameraucana chick

 What Baby Chicks Require

Chickens make great pets and are easier than most other pets to raise. However, new chicks are very fragile and need special care to survive. They are shipped from hatcheries just after hatching and the travels are hard on the new babies. It's not uncommon for some of the chicks to die during the trip or be "on the way out' upon arrival and in the days after bringing them home. They go without food or water for a day or longer during shipping and often go through weather they cannot handle. So it's important they get the attention they need immediately after arriving at your home or feed store.

I have created a printable page here with more information on  how to care for baby chicks. 

Thank you all who entered the Tea Collection giveaway. It was a lot of fun and I plan on doing more awesome giveaways in the future! The winner was picked randomly through Random.org (multiple comments were not counted as multiple entries) and is The Stone Family! Congratulations, I will be emailing you shortly.