techny arborvitae brown "buds"?

[mich44m]

Help! I purchased 6 techny arborvitae and planted them last summer. Over the last 6 months the trees have become increasingly brown with brown "buds" on the ends. The trees loook terrible right now. Are they supposed to have these "buds"? Shold I prune them? Please help! I tried to link a picture...hopefully it works.



https://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc467/mich44m/?action=view&current=arborvitae.jpg