The Chicks Arrive!

I had strategically scheduled my staycation to begin one day before my batch of 12 chocolate orpington chicks and 1 mystery chick were supposed to arrive at the post office in my small town. I had ordered from a hatchery id never used before and it had mixed reviews so i was nervous about whether they would arrive and what shape they’d arrive in. Mcmurray was my favorite hatchery and the favorite of pretty much every chicken owner ive talked to here and in the surrounding three towns. They’re up north. They’re not local, so that tells you, if each of us found them independently and prefer them, they must be good. Ive never had a bad experience with Mcmurray, but they didnt offer chocolate orpingtons, and i really wanted chocolate orpingtons. So i ordered from this other place. It was the only hatchery that offered chocolate orpingtons that had the orpington wide 10 lb body and didnt look like whatever kind of chicken they were crossbred with. They actually looked like orpingtons, just brown. Thats what i wanted. I didnt want just any old brown chicken. I loved the size and fluff and temperament of the orpingtons. So i reserved a batch months in advance and hoped theyd arrive all right. Well, unlike Mcmurray, they dont put them in the cargo hold of a delta airplane and ship them to you overnight. No, these geniuses put the day old chicks in the regular old postal service mail and even though they were marked priority, they did not have a delta cargo air travel tag and they stayed in transit two days rather than overnight. They did not call me at dawn and tell me to come pick up my chicks. No, they arrived the following day at 3 pm, by which time i was pretty much in an unreachable state. The tracking service for the package said it was still sitting in a distribution facility in ohio and hadnt moved at all for a day. The postal service itself told me they had no record of or evidence of the location of the package and we would just have to wait and see if it produced itself. Then i got an email that said “delivered” while the tracking still said they were in ohio, a day late, and the post office didnt call to tell me there were live birds up there until two hours after the email. Tracking still says they’re in ohio. I put shoes on and high tailed it to the post office like a bat out of hell or a woman on a mission. I was crazy by then. These people had lost my chickens. God knows what condition this iffy hatchery packed them in. Theyve now been in the box 2 whole days. It was cold outside. I was on a f***ing mission to get these birds.

Im not sure what i looked like walking in there in pajamas with hair disheveled after pacing the floor for two days and trying not to rip out every eyebrow hair wondering where these poor baby chickens were with next to no resources left. The yolk sack would be absorbed now and the seaweed gel typically only lasts a day if the hatchery even puts any in there; some dont. McMurray always puts plenty of seaweed gel so they dont die of dehydration if delayed in transit but this hatchery did not specify whether they used the gel. With mostly menopausal chickens, everything hinged upon me being able to obtain and socialize this batch of chocolate orpingtons for a week over my staycation. We used eggs for barter, to obtain vegetables, other supplies, and even favors. We also used them to tip repair people with. It was a way to incentivize them to make the drive all the way out to our small town next time. The chickens were old ladies now and our egg supply was drying up. With the nearest legit orpington shaped chocolate orpingtons in ohio, i needed to make a go of this because they were already booked ip through september. The next non spoken for chocolate orpingtons chicks could be purchased in december of 2026. The post office guy was the younger newer employee and not the one id known for years. I didnt care. I just really wanted that box. I was in a state by then. I signed for it and went to take the box home and get them situated. Everyone and their dog wanted to see the new feathered babies as soon as they heard they were found. They wanted me to stop by on the way home. I only obliged my best friend. Everyone else i told no. Basically, the day old chicks on this timeline would not be in the greatest life-compatible condition. They’d be cold, hungry, dehydrated, and stressed. I needed to get them home pronto and see who could be salvaged, and it was cold and windy outside on top of that.

I sat in the drivers seat and my best friend sat in the passengers seat of my car. I took a baby chick out of the box and set it in her hand. I sat there like some kind of helicopter chicken mom demanding she not squish their legs, hold cupped in her hand with the other hand on top for warmth, and keep them against her body or in her hands instead of holding them out in the open air to examine them. She was very polite about my helicopter bossing. She followed all instructions and then thanked me for letting her see the baby chicks. Once she’d seen them i continued on towards the homestead at a the highest pace i could go and still abide by the speed limit. i got them all into the brooder with the heat lamp on as quickly as i could and dipped a few chicks beaks in the water so theyd know where it was. I dont do all the chicks this way, just a few, and then once they start drinking the others typically copy the behavior. This is because when you dip the chicks beak in the water, sometimes they just hold it in their beak and swallow and sometimes they inhale. By letting the group watch and copy the first two, they tend to drink at their own pace and already know what its about when they begin the activity. Theres less risk of pneumonia. So i dipped two beaks in the water and sure enough the others observed and followed. I made sure they knew where the food was. Then i built them a shade corner. The hatchery had deleted everything non alive that i paid for in my order. No electrolytes (those were a mandatory purchase so im surprised they didnt send that) no thermometer (every time!) and no gro gel. I had to make a complaint and they tried to just give me a refund but i told them as far as the thermometer, i needed them to send that again because i needed the thermometer. They decided to try sending the order again and it arrived 2 weeks later. -_- By then i was pretty happy to have the thermometer cuz i was previously using their behavior yo tell me whether it was too hot or too cold in there. One chick arrived with a very poofy chest. My friend stated that she was cute and i should keep her, but i understood the poofy chest was not a good thing. It was an abnormality that ended up being incompatible with life. She had a pocket of air inflating beneath her skin in her chest area and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She would not eat or drink and if pressed on, her chest was full of air and made a crackly noise. She died the following day and i had a little funeral for her and buried her in a chick sized grave over by where the mosquito net tent garden had been years earlier. There was one mystery chick that was yellow and had these pudgy cheek floofs and we determined she is probably an americauna. I named her “nana pudding”. There were at least two roosters in the batch of all hens, one with a crop so far displaced it was nearly on his back. He hung on for over a week and then died and i had to bury him alongside his sibling. The chicks had not one evidence of seaweed gel in their box when i took them out. I dont know if they ate it all because they were in transit two days or if they didnt put any in. They were very thirsty. I did my best but the chicks were touch and go for the first four weeks and pretty fragile. Some were stronger than others. Mcmurray always sent healthy, vibrant, feisty chicks. I also never had a chick loss with them. And, they’ve never accidentally sent me a rooster when i bought all hens. I had so much trouble with this hatchery, when i realized there was a rooster i decided to purchase an incubator and an egg storing 60 degree mini fridge so i could breed my own chickens and never have to deal with them again. I needed to start socializing them so i wanted to hurry ip and separate out five chicks and give them to my coworker. We finally made that work on thursday so friday, saturday, and sunday i got to spend all day socializing the chicks, but being more fragile than mcmurray’s chicks, i only kept them against my chest for short periods of time before returning them to the brooder under the heat lamp. I wont name the hatchery but just trust me on this, just use mcmurray. I have no other ones i like. I have plenty of procedural reasons. Theres another hatchery i wont use because they put the heat pack above the bedding and not underneath, so if the box is jostled a chick can get crushed by the heat pad. Just use mcmurray or hatch your own. The problem was, literally no one in the entire texas chicken group im part of had chocolate orpingtons, so it wasnt like i could drive over a couple towns and get some. I had to use a hatchery. My plan is to breed chicks myself and hopefully also cross breed some buff and chocolate orpingtons this winter and hopefully make them available to more people around here.

The americauna started out bigger than the orpington chicks but they’ve now well surpassed her in size and i have to keep an eye out because they’re aware that she’s the only chicken that looks a little different and occasionally they’ll rip a long white feather out and chase each other around the brooder for it.

So i began the process of socializing the baby chickens. My friend and her daughter came one sunday to help with that. It was a much needed reprieve from the task for me. They were so little and fragile and always cold. It was necessary to socialize them but also stressful. I just wanted to leave them under the heat lamp and have them be warm enough. they didnt have the same pep and energy that McMurray buff orpington chicks did.

Nana Pudding started out the friendliest. She was smarter and more resourceful than the orpingtons. First to figure everything out, including flying and escape. Pretty soon the docile orpingtons warmed up to me and the americauna chick nana pudding decided she was kind of over me. I think she resented that i wouldnt let her roam free in the house.

This picture above shows nana pudding. Jujube is the surviving rooster. Then there’s butters (short for butterscotch). Her feathers are just a tad silver rather than all brown. Everyone else is all brown. Ginger is the biggest orpington hen who sometimes bullies nana pudding by ripping a feather out. She’s the healthiest largest hen but not my favorite because she throws her weight around because she can. Nutmeg is sometimes Ginger’s accomplice and also picks on nana pudding at times. Nana pudding, ive already had to deworm and treat for a respiratory infection by week 4. Im not happy with this hatchery and the health of their chicks but im fighting to make it work. Cinnamon is slightly smaller than nutmeg and can sometimes be found snuggled up to the smaller rooster chick, Jujube.

After a week, i went back to work. The chicks stayed in the brooder and i fretted about them day and night. Just do yourself a favor and order from McMurray. Save yourself the headache. they’ll all arrive alive, kicking, and feisty….not as fragile.