So, the last (and first time) our shipment of chicks arrived, I likened it to Christmas morning. We had counted down the days and prepared for weeks for their arrival. It was such a joyous occasion. Today was joyous, but I'd liken it more to that "oh-we're-in-labor,-better-head-to-the-hospital" day. We knew they'd be coming mid-September. We'd originally thought that we'd get them this week, but we hadn't yet gotten the shipping notice. So, we were surprised to get the phone call from the post office this morning at 7:00, asking us to please come pick up our chirpie chicks!

We all scurried around. Girl 2, our #1 chicken farmer, rushed around throwing shoes on and jumping in the van to accompany daddy to the post office.

Their home in the garage had to be readied quickly. Luckily, we already had all the feeders, waterers, and tubs cleaned and had feed ready to go.

Some quick assembly, and the chick habitat was ready to go!

Time to move in! Unfortunately, one died in shipping. You can see the poor little one in the top left of the box. :( It's pretty common, but it was a first for us.

This girl loves her chicks!

We'd orginally ordered a bunch more chicks, including more layers, but we canceled those and just went with broilers (meat chickens) this go round. In fact, we decided to try a different breed altogether. These chicks are Cornish Cross, which is much closer to what's grown in chicken houses today. They reach maturity very quickly, which is good, but they have some other negatives that must be weighed in as well (that's another post altogether). Because we'd ordered so many in our initial order, the company threw in a free "exotic breed" chick that they apparently didn't remove when we diminished our order. You can see her/him in the above pic. Girl 2 named it Cuddles. It's the only one she was allowed to name (meaning that the others will all be dinner).

Getting acquainted with their new home