Last week, Wednesday, we headed to the post office to pick up our chicks!  We ordered 27 Americana chicks, and we received one extra.  Americana chickens lay tinted blue, green eggs.  They also go broody, so in a year or so, we should get our own baby chicks.  It sure beats trying to incubate eggs!  That was fun, but a pain, and not very successful. 

I just love all the different colors they are. 

So far, 3 chicks have died.  We expected it, but it was still sad.  Especially knowing that I paid money for the dead chickens now rotting in my garden. 

Speaking of sadness, we had to put down two of our ducks.  We think the guineas were picking on the ducks, which caused open wounds.  Since it was warm and the flies were out like crazy, they laid eggs in the wounds and, well.... you can imagine the horror that ensued.  When we found them, they were really bad off.  The vet said it would cost over $200 minimum per duck and it could take up to 6 months to nurse them back to health.  So we chose to put them down for $13.  We were really upset, but we still have two ducks, one male and one female, so we are hoping for some baby ducks come spring.