Today, I had planned to write about the new littles that came at the end of last week – tell you all about them; what they were, their characteristics etc. But guess what? I already did that. So, if you need a refresher, like I did, check out our post from August 19th entitled, “Getting Ready for New Littles“. If you just want an overview, I can give you that now. 

On Thursday, we had 30 new chicks delivered from the McMurray Hatchery. Sue ordered 7 each of Single Comb Brown Leghorn, Pearl-White Leghorn, New Hampshire Red, and Rhode Island Red. They also threw in an extra New Hampshire Red (female) and 1 Free Rare Exotic Chick (straight run). Today was the first day I was able to tell which one might be the Rare Exotic; it is a pretty, light-grey guy, but we’ll need to wait until it gets a bit older to try to identify what breed he/she is. They are all very cute at the moment and just run everywhere they go; there is no such thing as walking. We checked them for pasty butt today, sometimes that happens from the stress of being mailed, but only a third needed any attention. The banty bunch did well too; we only had to clean them up twice and they were over it.  We’ll see how it goes with these little ones.

Speaking of the Banty Bunch- they have been livin’ large, outside of the bottom brooder. They still feel like it’s their safe place and will run to the door when we first walk in. Once we’ve been around them for a little bit, or if we’re in the midst of feeding them, they get curious and friendly. Today, since I was standing by the top brooder for a bit taking care of The Layers – they got quite comfortable: they sat on my feet, pecked at my flowery shoes, and, in general, got in the way. They are so cute though, you just gotta love ’em. They will be 8 weeks on the 25th – they may be small, but they have a mighty big attitude!  Oh! In the photo  above (depending on your viewing device) you can see the one little sleek, brownish hen – upper right – she’s the “Rare Exotic” from the Banty Bunch. She is a cutie too. A bit smaller than the others, and as you can see, not as fluffy at all. I did snap a better photo of her so you can see the differences. Don’t know what she is, but she is plucky! We may have around 6 roosters in the Banty Bunch, we’ve agreed to give our neighbor, Tom, a pair – because he just fell in love with little Maeve. I hope there is at least one good guy that we can keep. We might have to butcher the others – they’ll be Cornish Game Hen size by that time.

Other news… As of Saturday, Sue is almost done with the cold frame, she just needs to attach the heavy duty plastic covering. It was too windy earlier in the day today to wield the plastic all alone. Maybe we can work on that tomorrow if the winds don’t cooperate in the morning. It’s nice and big; hopefully the wind won’t be too hard on the plastic. Sue’s going to triple layer it, and put some 2×2’s through it so that it can be rolled up to various levels. Sue has devised a way to clamp it down and keep it in place during the winds. I’m excited to see how it all works out! We’ll post a few more photos as the design progresses. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

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Today’s Weather: Well, it was pretty dang warm. The Weather Chanel App says it only got up to 85° today, but it felt a great deal warmer than that. Supposed to be warmer again tomorrow.

Egg Report: For the weekend Saturday: we had 2 duck eggs (which seems to be the norm at the moment) and 14 chicken, Sunday: 2 duck and 18 chicken,  Today: 2 duck and 14 chicken.  As a rather cute side note: at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, I had a little girl – maybe 5 years old – stop by the table; she said that the eggs were very pretty. I replied, “That you so much. I really like them too.” Then she thought for a second and asked me, “Are there baby chickens in there?” I told her that no, there wouldn’t be babies in these eggs. Her mom laughed and said, “That’s a good thing!” I thought it was funny.