And so it begins…

Well… on Monday the chicks finally arrived; 25 tiny, multi-colored, peeping balls of fuzz. We ordered chicks from McMurray Hatchery back in February. We picked all kinds… chickens with fluffy feet, some with fluffy heads, a few rare Spanish chickens, some weird dinosaur looking ones, some half-wild ones, and each kid ordered a little bantam for their own. The kids were out of their minds with excitement. Jeremiah was too young to remember the last batch and Grace was just a baby, so this is going to be a life memory for those two.

They have been waiting for the chicks to arrive with as much anticipation as Santa on Christmas.  Well, Ok…not that much… but they were very excited. I have to admit…me too. Chickens are more interesting to watch that one would imagine, and they each provide an egg every day. What more can you ask? And what are we going to do with 2 dozen eggs a day? Who knows… I told Grace if she cared for them, she could have 4-5 dozen a week of her own to sell. She is such a little entrepreneur!

Within the first hour, we experienced two chicken milestones. The first? Grace named one of the chicks “Steve”; the second? Steve’s health started to go down hill and Grace was in tears. I tried to explain to her that it is normal to lose a few chicks the first day. In fact, when I was a kid, our chick batches of 25 would arrive and by the end of the day there would be only 12. Maybe we shouldn’t name them yet, I suggested. Of course…that didn’t help.  But luck was on our side and Steve pulled through. The rest of the day was chick-mania. We went to Blue Seal feeds and picked up chick supplies, and came home and set up a nice little pen for them. Within a couple hours, all 25 had names. (not that I can tell who is who, or remember any names)

Grace is adamant that her little bantam chick is going to be trainable and learn to do tricks and sleep in her bedroom. I’m just smiling right now… I’ll break the news about chicken hygiene and intelligence another day. 

Jeremiah also had his own trauma. His bantam, Milo, immediately became the lowest on the pecking order and the others pecked its face until it was bleeding. We had to separate it from the others until it healed up a bit. Jeremiah was sure his chicken would die… it’s always his thing that dies or disappears. But again…things worked out, and after the chicks ate and drank, they all relaxed and left each other alone. So now the chicks live in a hamster cage on our window sill. As soon as they are big enough, they get to move outside into the new chicken coop that I’ve built. If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know that for the last month, I’ve been building a post and beam style chicken coop. 

 

More on my chicken coop project another time…