Additions to our flock

Today (Sat) I collected from Cyril Bason the latest batch of chicks. They are Rhode Island Blacks, which I assume have similar breeding to Black Rocks namely a Rhode Island Red / Barred Plymouth Rock hybrid.
There were 25 day olds in the batch which arrived in a cardboard transport box all chirping their heads off. We raise our chicks under broody hens, but have to wait till dark before we can introduce these chicks to their new mums. So to keep them warm we put them in a plant propagator with a temp set at about 20c. As soon as they were inside the propagator the chirping stopped.








They have now been introduced to their surrogate mothers and been accepted, the first day under a broody hen the chicks are kept close to mum, she often stops them feeding. So it is important to make sure that they have food and water before introducing to the broody hen