4-H New Chicks

I received a text from one of our 4-H coordinators Miss Gladys on Wednesday letting me know that the baby chicks for our 4-H group would be arriving in the afternoon if we wanted to come over and have the girls help with them.  So, when the time arrived we drove over and saw the box and could hear the little peeps coming from it.

Since our girls were the only kids that came over they got to really be hands on in this.  Miss Gladys son and niece instructed them on cleaning the brooder and the heat lamp that was there to bring the temperature up to what these chicks would need.  We cleaned the water bottle and added the warm water they had prepared with a bit of sugar to help the chicks recover from the shipping ordeal.

Brooder cleaned, lined with paper towels and heating under the lamp

Paper towels were laid for the initial bedding for the chicks and now it was time to open the box.  It was with a collective AWWWWWW, that we got our first sight of these 17 fuzzy little cuties!!!

Aren't they adorable?!!!!

The girls helped pick them up and before placing them in the brooder we needed to dip their beaks in the water so they would know where and how to get water to drink.  A little food specifically for the chicks was placed on the towels and the chicks began getting used to their new environment.

Lauren loved holding the fuzzy little chicks

Hannah took seriously the instructions to make sure each one had it's beak dipped so it would know how to drink.

Miss Gladys niece and son helping the chicks get settled.

There was one little guy who was the first to jump out of the box, ran all around the brooder and kept trying to figure out how to jump out and explore.  It was funny watching the personalities of these little characters.

Here's Hannah dipping one of the chicks beak.  They all seemed to get the knack of this.

The dark colored chick in the center on the waterer is the one that was our super explorer.

It will be fun and a real learning experience for the girls to watch these chicks grow and develop.  We're hoping all works well for their survival as the reality is they are fragile in these first weeks.  That's part of the learning as well, so we'll do our part in helping them survive and thrive.  So glad to have had a part in this exercise in learning through our 4-H, and it will help for when we get our own chicken area going too.