Baby chicks.  That sounds a little redundant, doesn't it?  Oh well, that's just what I call them. 

I received my meat bird order Tuesday morning.  The man at the post office called about 8:00 am, just as I had said, "I am hoping they come tomorrow!"  I wasn't totally prepared for them, but I got prepared in a big hurry.  I ordered 125 and received 148.  That's a lot of chicks and boy are they noisey!

They always send one little exotic chick in the batch.  I think he's the black one on the far right.  The others are from chicken eggs I had in the incubator along with my second batch of turkey eggs.  Chickens take 21 days, turkeys take 28 days.  I put 18 or 20 eggs in there and 14 of them hatched!  Pretty good fertility rate around here. 

I had another black hen setting in the coop, so I took 6 babies out last night and stuck them under her.  My husband says, "YOu just can't leave it alone, can you?"    So far it's looking like she's accepted them.  I still have 3 in the hatch tray and haven't decided if I should put them under the hen or in with the meat birds.  I wish she could raise all 14, but I think that's just too many for her.  It's so fun to watch a mother hen and her chicks!

Here are the first 4 that hatched in the incubator.

Chris is afraid I am going to want to buy an incubator now.  What he doesn't know is that I've already thought to myself, I could raise chicks year-round!  It's just so much fun.  But, to everything there is a season.