In anticipation of the arrival of the fifteen newest members of the family, we dug out the family dog’s old play pen and filled it with shavings.

At 0644 on Thursday April 28 2016 the post office called to let me know our girls had arrived.  It’s been a LONG time since I got out of bed THAT quickly!  Sadly, all of the older kids were en-route to school, so the ‘lil peeps and I got dressed and zipped over to the post office before they opened.  The nice young lady inside pretended not to hear me the first time I knocked on her window (making her “closed” sign vibrate), but the second try got me a scowl and a finger pointing to the aforementioned “closed” sign.  I smiled gracefully and mouthed “baby chickens” and was rewarded by a smile and a wait one minute gesture.

While I waited I could hear the baby birds amazing song growing louder as they approached.  Then magically a door opened and there were our girls!  The first thing I noticed was the overwhelming smell of rotting flesh.  With a knot growing in my gut (it was just me and the ‘lil peeps after all, how would I hide a casualty, or, gasp, more!?) I singed for our precious cargo and headed home.

As soon as we were in the house I carefully cut the shipping straps and with a mixture of dread (This is supposed to be a learning experience of course, a lesson in caring for living creatures, not a crash course in death.), and excitement to meet our new charges!  I was just hoping against hope that by paying significantly more for four week old birds we would defy odds and have all survive the journey. Alas, one poor soul didn’t make it here from Texas.  Sadly, it was one of our Americannas, one of three prize blue egg layers.

Without further ado, let me present our girls; Autumn, Gem, and Ruby our three Rhode Island Reds; Star, Diamond and Garnet, our three Red Stars; Pearl, Opal and Mother Clucker (named by the 15 year old), our Pearl White Leghorns; Onyx, Midnight and Pepper our three Barred Rocks; and Salt and Fluffy our surviving Americannas.

 

Our beloved Shi Tzu, “G”, even got in on the action, checking out our little ladies.

 

The Hatchery immediately refunded my money for the one who didn’t make it, unfortunately due to their popularity, there were no replacements available.

 

One by one all of the family got the chance to meet each of the girls.  It did require me setting a timer, both for duration of holding time and intervals in between so the littlest additions could rest.

 

Individual pictures of each lady are in the works (they need to trust me a bit more and not flee as I approach camera in hand), so check back soon!