My first week with chicks

I am coming to the end of my first week with my baby chicks. It has been a rough start, but now it's more fun.

I think we picked the worst possible time of year to have our chicks delivered. Because we had planned on taking a trip to Lake Tahoe for Presidents' Day weekend, we decided to have the chicks delivered the week after, the week of the 21st of February.

When we came closer to the due date, the whole midwest and western United States were hit with record-breaking freezing temperatures and storms. The chicks were coming from St. Paul, Minnesota via USPS Priority Post. I don't know whether they get shipped by air or road, but either way it was going to be cold.

The chicks hatched and were accepted into the postal system on Sunday, 2/20/11, at 5:49 am (CST). Tuesday, 2/22, at 2:30 pm, the post office called me to come pick them up. That works out to about 60-hours in transit, when they need to have water and food within 48-hours... I think the holiday is what made it take so long - that and I probably could have had the post office hold them at the processing center for me to pick up, instead of my local station.

Needless to say, they were stressed. Out of 37 or 38 chicks, one was DOA, and 4 were not looking good. We started them on sugar water to boost their recovery and introduced chick start (non-medicated) after an hour or so. The four that were not feeling well were isolated in a little box, inside the brooder, nearest the heat source. They were given a mash of sugar water and chick start, handfed, for the most part.