New Peeps!

My new peeps finally arrived!  We ordered these cuties came from McMurray Hatchery in Iowa, a few months ago.  They were scheduled to be delivered the week of April 4th.  We did not expect them on a Monday!  The post office called my husband at 830 this morning to tell up we have a chirping box waiting for us.  He called me and I wrapped things up at work and scrambled home to get to the post office.  I know that you have to keep the peeps warm, so I had the heat set to inferno in my car.  I was so hot when I pulled into the post office parking lot an hour later!

I opened the box at the post office to make sure they all made it and did a quick head count.  I ordered 25 and they were to send 1 extra exotic rare breed as a bonus.  I counted 26 bobbing little heads and made sure they were all alive.  I thanked the post master and skipped out of the post office totally giddy with these cute little critters chirping loudly in the box in my arms.

At home Hubby was busy mixing up the medicated water that we have to give them as a preventive measure.  We only give it to the peeps for the first week and then they are unmedicated for the rest of their lives.  He also turned on the lights and did the finishing touches on the brooder.  He made sure the basement brooder was nice and warm when I got home with the peeps.

We got home safe and sound and went to the basement.  There I pulled out each peep out and dipped their beak into the water to make them drink.  I was also counting them as I was doing this and ended up with a total of 27 peeps.

We ordered 10 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 5 Black Astralorps, 10 Araucana (Easter Eggers - they lay green/blue eggs), and we ended up with 2 bonus "Rare Exotic Chicks". I don't know what those are yet. All I know is that they are plain white/yellow peeps. Who knows. We will hopefully figure them out when they feather out. We picked these breeds because they are winter hearty and friendly birds.  These cuties will come up to you and investigate your hand and fingers.  They don't run to the other side of the brooder screaming bloody murder that a monster is after them.  

We watched them for a while and we finally pulled ourselves away from them to try to get some work done.  I have been down to visit with them, talk to them and of course take pictures of them.  I will try to take daily pictures to document how fast they feather out.  It is amazing how fast they grow.  

The peeps are very fragile at this stage of their lives.  They are only a few days old and look for everything to be taken care of for them.  When they get exhausted they just kinds fall over asleep where they are.  They drift off to sleep and fall over or collapse and sleep for a few minutes or until another peep runs them over.  They have no regard for each other and will just plow each over over in their activity.

The brooder is 8x8 and we have sectioned it off in half.  They are too small right now to need all that space.  The brooder is made out of OBS board cut in half and held together with zip ties.  We make it so we can tear it down and store it until we need it again.  There is a big tarp on the floor and pine shavings over the tarp.  We have wire lids what will keep them in when they get bigger and try to fly/hop out.  There is 4 lights with 100 watt bulbs and a heat bulb to give them heat.


Here are just some more random pictures of them all:

I hope you enjoyed reading about these cuties!  More to come later!  Stay tuned.