The Best Kind of Mail

by Mariah Nienhuis, TheFarmChicken

Guess what came to the farm last week? Our chicks came! Such a fun day! We got a call from our local post office and our chicks were there waiting to be picked up! Did you know you can get chicks in the mail? Arguably some of the best mail.

So, I got our little girl ready, and we headed into town. We picked them up and visited the postal worker and she was so nice. She had little dum dum suckers that she keeps on hand to give out to the kids that come in. Small towns are great. Then, off we went with our chirping mail!

We got home and let them out into their brooder which is basically a large stock tank that we put newspaper and straw in for their bedding. When you put them in the brooder the first time you dip their beaks into the water in the waterer, so they know where it is. We have gotten chicks two times now and we get them from Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon MO. We have appreciated their quality and business.

When you order chicks, you can get your chicks sexed or not sexed. Basically, this means that they will either send you the sex (either hen or rooster) of chicken you ask for or they will be chosen at random. We don't have a rooster and don't really want one so we always buy sexed chickens so that we can get just hens. One thing about it though, they can't 100% guarantee that they are all hens/female because it can be hard to be sure with little chicks. So, we will wait and see for sure! We might end up with a rooster yet!

One of the things I enjoy about laying hens is depending on what breeds you get you can have all kinds of colorful eggs. So much fun! Currently, with our older hens we get a brown speckled egg, light brown egg, medium brown egg, and a blue egg. These baby chicks should start laying this fall and we should add a pretty olive egg to our egg basket!

This time we decided on Barnvelders, Olive Eggers, Easter Eggers, and the well-loved Buff Orpington! From our last batch of chicks that we got 3 years ago, our favorites were Buffs and Easter Eggers! I included a picture of the chicks in their box waiting to be taken out. Have a great week and thanks for reading!

You can read more about chickens, farming, nutrition, and recipes from the farm at thefarmchicken.com.