It's Quintuplets!!

Yay!! We got a phone call from the local post office at about 8:45 today. I was still in my PJs as were the boys. I wasn't getting my hopes up since we were disappointed last week, but I was planning to call the post office by 9:00. After I hung up I flew into my oldest son's bedroom where my two boys were playing and told them to hurry and get dressed because we were going to get our babies!! It is a rare occasion that my oldest son gets dressed without distracting himself and needing many "reminders", but today, that kid was dressed and ready in no time. We plugged in the heat lamp over the brooder box, filled the waterer, brought the food jar upstairs and headed out. It was SOOOOOO exciting! When we entered the post office we had to wait as there was someone ahead of us in line, but we could hear peeping coming from behind the counter! I wish I could show you the look on my boys' faces as they waited in anticipation for our chicky box to be revealed. My littlest boy was standing with both hands over his mouth, eyes wide, listening for the peeping box to come out. We kept the box closed until we got home.



Our chick nursery is our upstairs bathroom. I took a plastic tub that I had and cut out the center of the lid. We used nuts, washers, and bolts to attach hardware cloth to the cutout area. Then we used scrap lumber from the chicken coop to throw together a stand from which to hang our heat lamp. You can see the setup below.



Here is what we saw when we opened the box. Five little chickies all huddled together. The white rectangle is a heat pack that was in the bottom of the box. The green glob is gro-gel that is there for them to eat if needed during their transit time.




Oh my goodness! They are so tiny and cute. I snapped this photo of me holding the one that I think is a Rhode Island Red. It is a really pretty brownish red color. My oldest son's chicken is a Buff Orpington which is tan and my youngest son's is a White Leghorn (pronounced leggern) and it is yellow now but will be all white. So it was easy to tell them which chicks are "theirs".




Here are some of the girls getting used to their new home. I have paper towels on top of cotton hull bedding right now. When they are so little it's hard for them to walk through litter, so they'll have paper towel bedding for a week or so. It will be easy to pull out and change when it gets soiled.

I was very happy that they quickly figured out eating and drinking and are all doing it frequently.

It will be so fun to watch them grow and change. I'll keep you "posted"!!