My Americanas and Buff Orphingtons were coming in only a couple weeks, but I couldn't resist the cute little puffballs at our local Tractor Supply. I took home two of each kind of chick in the "Assorted Pullets" bin. How fun to guess what type of chicken they will grow up to be! One little yellow chick was not looking so hot... unfortunately I lost her the next day. I called the Tractor Supply for advice, who told me I was supposed to be giving them Terramycin in the water for the first two days (would have been nice to know!). They said that is maybe not why the little chick didn't make it, but it might have helped. My friend Rita M. says she gives her babies "chick gatorade" for the first week-- a teaspoon of karo syrup or unsulphured molasses and a pinch of salt for each pint of water. She also says that if they make it the first three days their chances are good, so at this point my gals should be okay.

For getting set up with chickens (and ducklings!) you'll need:

a large box (cardboard got wrecked within the week-- those ducks like to play with the water!--so I switched to an easier to clean Rubbermaid bin)
metal heat lamp with red 250 watt bulb (I read that a red bulb keeps the pecking at eachother down, so far no problems with this using a red bulb)
thermometer to be sure you're keeping the chicks at 90 degrees F
a chick feeder with enough room for a hole for each chick (they poke their heads through little holes to eat)
chick feed (should be finely ground and powdery... the first brand I bought was like Grape Nuts and they didn't really eat it)
a poultry waterer
Terramycin for the first two days (this was very difficult to convert since it's in metric and the directions are for a BIG flock, not 20 birds. Ask the person at the feed store to help you figure out how much to give before you leave. Mine worked out to be about 1/8 TSP per gallon of water.)
shavings for bedding
some sort of scoops to fish food and shavings out of their bags
a food bowl for the ducks--they like a little water mixed in with their food so I used a little metal dish (paper bowl was torn apart too easily)
disposable rubber gloves (this is my solution to chicken/duck poop... I started out trying to scoop it or pick it up with a paper towel, but it's just easier to put on a glove and scrape up the top layer of shavings twice a day. Put the used stuff in a junk box and dump it on the compost pile every few clean outs. By the way, they stink even if you clean the bin daily.)