Death by Cuteness

Prepare yourselves.  You just might die when you see how cute these babies are.

I drove my booty over to St. Paul and picked up  my chicks.  Here's how it works.  You show up; you pay; you pick your chicks and you drive home with them peeping all the way from inside a small cardboard box that you have lovingly seat-belted into the passenger seat next to you.  The store owners will not ask you if you own a hungry boa constrictor.  They store owners will tell you to keep the box closed for their protection but you will immediately open it so you can take pictures and send them to all your relatives and so that the little biddies won't be scared of the dark.  You are their mother now and it is time to start acting like it.  You are now - a farmer.  Welcome.

They look a little scared of me in this picture.

You can bypass your friendly urban farm supply store or local feed store and order your own chicks . . . if you dare.  You can order from a chick supplier, but they usually have a minimum order of say . . . 15.  The number is to ensure that they will keep each other warm.  And it is my hunch that they include a few extra in case the flock looses a few on the way.  I couldn't bear the idea of opening up a perforated cardboard box to day-old deceased chicks.  Also - they can't ensure that they are ALL females and I can assure you that even if your city is chicken friendly, they are not rooster friendly.  You can try to keep him a secret and good luck with that.  You will have to dispose of him eventually and that was not something I wanted to put on The Husband's desk.  I'm seriously pushing my luck as it is.

So I opted for #2.  Go pick them up from the farm store.  In my case, we have a very hip, urban farm store in St. Paul - here's the link Egg/Plant - and they take orders and get the chicks delivered to their store.  They take care of the first few days when the chicks are learning how not to eat pine shavings and how to drink water.  The kind staff also deals with the aptly named "pasty butt" (it's exactly what it sounds like).  All of this is taken care of if you wait a few days after they arrive.  In my case, they were born on Monday and I picked them up Thursday, free of butt paste and healthy as can be.