alchemist_farm

We hatch our chicks weekly and make them ready for pickups and shipments the day after they hatch. Hatching once a week means that we save eggs up for a week before setting them.
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The numbers of eggs laid in a week ebbs and flows with the seasons, weather and emotional state of the flocks. This last week was a good solid average week of eggs laid so I decided to pop them into a giant basket that my mother gave me last time we visited and whooooie was one heavy beautiful basket! 🌿
We do not wash our eggs, they are clean because we are on top of keeping our nesting boxes clean and we make sure the birds have comfy places to roost at night away from their nesting boxes so they stay fresh longer. Clean nesting boxes mean clean eggs that do not need to be washed. 🙌
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Why don’t we want to wash the eggs? The eggs have a lovely protective bloom on them that makes viability higher for hatching. It is natures protective blanket and there is no way we would want to wash that beautiful business off. ❤️
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This basket contains eggs from our:
🐓Alchemist Blues
🐓 Azure Eggers
🐓Copper Marans 🐓Double Silver Laced Barnevelders
🐓German Bielefelders 🐓Golden Laced Orpingtons
🐓Heritage Welsummers
🐓Moss Eggers
🐓Sage Eggers
🐓Serama
🐓Silkie
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The only breed we work with not pictured in this basket of delight are our Olive Eggers, they are a new cross we are working on and they will yield dark green eggs with a blue undertone. More color, more depth to the egg collecting basket will be appearing soon. ❤️❤️❤️

 What will happen when my chicks are shipped?

 A handful of days before your shipping date we will send you your tracking number for your chicks and you will start to see movement on the number come Tuesday. We ship every Tuesday morning. Shipping on the chicks can take anywhere from 1-3 days depending on the route between our local post office in Sebastopol California and your local postoffice. We pack the chicks with a heat pack and enough gro gel to last them a journey of 4 days should the mail take longer than expected. We have shipping minimums of 10 chicks between February-June 1st to ensure that the chicks stay warm and secure while in transit. 

 When your chicks begin their journey of travel it is a good idea to set up your brooder at home so that it is all ready for them when you get them home. We recommend a nice warm space with feeders and clean waterers setup. We favor heat lamps as a source of heat AS LONG AS THEY ARE EXTRA EXRTA secure so that there is no chance of them falling into the brooder and causing a fire. Lots of folks prefer using heat plates for their chicks, it is not something that we use at the farm because we find that the chicks clump up under them and can get squished. A heat lamp that is at an appropriate height will allow for the chicks to draw near to it for heat or away from it if they want to cool down. 

 When your chicks arrive at your local post office they will be held there for you to pick them up.  Your phone number will be written on the top of the box and your post office will call you as soon as they arrive (sometimes very early in the morning) for you to come scoop them up. Before you leave for the post office go ahead and turn your brooder warming source on so that your brooder will be warm and cozy for them when you get them home.

When you get to the post office please open your box and make sure all of the chicks arrived safely. If any did not make the journey please take a photo of the perished chick inside of the box with the live ones so we can either refund or replace the chick for you.

 Once getting your chicks home allow them to get settled in alone for an hour. Let them stretch their legs, explore their new space, get a drink and relax before cuddling them. If a chick is looking sad or like it needs some extra love then you can hold it close to you to give it warmth and it will come around swiftly. 

 We recommend putting some powdered vitamins and electrolytes in your chicks waterer for the first week that they arrive at your home to help ease the transitional stress of travel. Powdered probiotics also will help boost the immune system of your birds from an early age and help them ward off any possible pathogens that they will encounter of the course of their life. Both probiotics and electrolyte resources can be found here both are inexpensive and really effective!