My mother was a postmaster in the small town we grew up in. One time in the dead of winter a shipment of baby chicks arrived about 250, yep in the mail (before UPS and FED-EX). She kept having trouble with the heat in the post office and it got really cold. The customer was out of town so MOM called her supervisor and asked if she could bring them home to keep them warm. back then she got the OK. Didn't want any dead chicks. I can still remember 11:30 at night listening to nothing but peeps coming from the living room. 250 peepers make a lot of noise. My sister raised bantams for awhile but couldn't get the money out of them she could get from the larger egg layers. She still kept them.