A Full House

I got a very unexpected phone call yesterday evening. It was Orscheln wanting to let me know that they were still holding my four Ameracauna (OK, probably Easter Egger) chicks for me. The last person I talked to said that they hadn't come in the shipment, so I found another way to get some.  Imagine my surprise, since I'd been calling them twice a day and given up, hadn't gotten any other notification, and had already settled my others in! 

Scott being the patient person he is, let me get these anyway. So any of you out there that live nearby, I'll have PLENTY of eggs to sell this fall! Here are the new cuties:

They're the four lightest ones in the last 2 pics, the lightest 2 in the first pic. They're still nameless, but won't be for long.  The other four I got are the "wild" color pattern (stripes down their backs--the one between the newbies in the first pic is also an Ameracauna) so I really wonder what color these girls will turn out to be!  This puts me at an even 15 in the brooder box.  YIKES!  I haven't even gotten the broilers yet!

Still, the little peepers are incredibly tough for not even being a week old yet.  I have to turn the brooder warming lamp off at times because even at the prescribed 95 degrees, the chicks are panting and lethargic.  I turn it off and they zip around like crazy.  That's with the windows in the mud room open as well.  I guess I made the right choices for cold-hardy breeds--here's hoping they'll do well this summer too.  I've still got my freeze bottles if they don't.  Aaah, life with chickens!