Baby Chicks

Did you know you can order baby chicks on-line and have them delivered through the mail? Yes, you can.

We tried for 2 months to get some more chicks here in Central Oregon and finally gave up. They were sold almost the second they arrived at the feed stores and no one would let us order them in advance. They were all first come first serve and since they always arrived midday on weekdays, we kept missing out.

So I started searching on-line. Problem is, most hatcheries have a minimum 25-50 chick order. We only wanted 6 or 8. I finally found Cackle Hatchery who had a 15 chick minimum order. We figured we could handle 15 and quickly found a taker for 8. So I placed an order. A week or so later (as they noted on their website) I got a call saying our chicks were being shipped and to expect a phone call from the Sisters Post Office Friday morning. Sure enough, we got a call at 7:00 am (long before the post office opens) letting us know the chicks were there waiting for us. So John headed over to pick them up.

We actually wound up with an extra chick, 11 rather than 10 buff orpingtons and 5 barred rocks. My friend took all 5 barred rocks (which I ordered for her) and 3 of the orpingtons so we are left with 8 orpingtons which we have decided to keep.

They are so cute and doing great! Last year we had one buff orpington, one rhode island red and one that I can't remember that was black and white - might have been a barred rock. Anyway, their names were Ethel (the buff which we still have), Gertie (the red) and Henrietta (the black). A coyote got Gertie, and Henrietta got sick and died (while we were on vacation - poor neighbors!)

So I asked Jaxon what we should name the new chicks. He promptly responded that the yellow ones (all 11 of them!) were Ethels and the black ones are Henriettas. Well, the Henriettas are gone now so we don't have to worry about them but I suggested the chicks might each want their own names. Jaxon was ok with that as long as at least one is Ethel. So far we have "Little Ethel" "Junior" "Sunny" and "Daisy". We are trying to keep with *yellow* names for the rest. Any ideas?