Peeps, Finally

I was at the farm store by 7:00 am yesterday morning and fourth in line. Three ladies were ahead of me, so we had a nice chat between ourselves and with the people who got in line behind us. At 7:30, an employee came and opened the door. We all filed in and another employee put our names down on a list and told us to come back at 9:45.

I came home, turned the lights on over the brooder box, and filled the waterer and feeder. I was back at the farm store by 9:45 along with a lot of other people. I chatted briefly with one of the women who had been in line with me earlier. Another woman standing next to me asked me what number I had, and when I told her, she said, “What time did you get here this morning?” I responded that we had been there by 7:00 and she said, “Oh, wow. I am number 37.” I thought to myself, “Lady, you’re not going to get any chicks,” because the store had only received half a shipment.

The employees began the process by giving out replacement chicks to customers who had purchased chicks previously that died within the first 24 hours. A few people came forward to get theirs. The three ladies ahead of me wanted either ducks or a variety of chicks. When my number was called, I asked for 12 Cinnamon Queen chicks. We need a red breed this year—each year, I get a different color so we know how old each group of hens is—and my choices were either Cinnamon Queen or Rhode Island Red. I went with the new variety. The ChickenFans website has this description:

Cinnamon Queen is a recent sex-linked hybrid breed. It’s gaining popularity because of its attractive name, ease of maintenance, and hardiness. Cinnamons are a mix of two well-known chicken breeds, the Rhode Island Red and Silver Laced Wyandotte, where the RIR is the rooster and the Wyandotte a white hen with black lacing. The result is a reddish-brown female and a white male, so their sex can be told immediately after hatching. The name ‘Cinnamon Queen’ finds its origin in the cinnamon-colored hens. The breed is quite large and heavy, being a dual-purpose breed bred for meat and eggs. Roosters weigh approximately 7.5 pounds (3.5 kg), and hens are tipping the scale at 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg).

I paid for the chicks, sped home, and got them into the brooder box.

They seemed to be doing well for most of the day, but we lost two last evening so we’re down to 10. Honestly, I am not surprised. I noted that a couple of the chicks looked like they were a few days old, but the rest of them looked like they had been dispatched from the hatchery within hours of hatching, and being shipped thousands of miles in a cardboard box is stressful. The husband may run in to the farm store this morning to get replacements. I can’t go because I have a meeting.

I checked on them a few minutes ago* and the rest of the chicks seem to be doing fine. Even if we end up with just 10, I will be grateful for every single one of them. WS came over yesterday afternoon to get eggs for his farmstand and said he has eggs in the incubator. We might also be able to purchase a couple of chicks from him.

*One of our neighbors got photos of a grizzly at his place the other night just a mile south of us. I had to walk out to the garage to check on peeps, and it occurred to me that wandering around outside in my bathrobe at 4:30 am might be less than wise, but I didn’t see any bears.

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I took a few minutes to sew late yesterday afternoon and was able to assemble a couple of stars:

This is one of those projects where I don’t know exactly how much fabric I am going to need, and while I think I have plenty, I am trying to be very careful with cutting.

We have a workshop today at church, so I am going to be tied up with that all day.