Good morning,

Most farm stores sell day old chicks in the spring.  It takes about five months to reach laying age, so if we buy in March, we can expect eggs starting late September.  It is still cool here in March and the need to shelter the chicks and keep them warm is crucial even without us reaching freezing temperatures.

In the last few years, one of our farm stores has started carrying chicks in the late summer.  It wasn’t until this year that we decided to give it a try.  We bought six chicks, three golden sex links and three red sex links.

This is what the chicks are sent home in.

Arriving at their new home

We had their home ready, a stock tank with cedar shavings, water, chick feed and a warming light.

They seemed to like exploring their new home and would all run from one end to the other.

We knew we would have to rearrange the food and water as they grew.  We also found that being summer, we did not need as much of a heat source to keep them comfortable.  The chicks will let you know if they are too cold or too warm from where they go in relation to the heat source.

We have cats.  So we needed a good cat proof top.  We had an old Ikea frame we have kept for years (we keep everything it seems, never know when it will come in handy, and it did) It fit the top of the tank perfectly.    My husband added some stops to keep it from sliding and hardware cloth.  Since it is not very cool, we can set the heat lamp on one end on the wire.

One of our cats is fascinated with the chicks.  They didn’t seem to be afraid of him.

Settled in for Cat TV.

Here they are at four days.

So far, I think I am enjoying the fall chicks more than the spring.  Our temperatures are still hot in August and do not cool until late October and sometimes later.  These girls are growing fast and will move into the small mobile coop soon.

Updates to follow. 🙂