Brooding Chicks

I almost fell asleep today without getting some words out into the world. It was an irregular, busy, and hectic day. We’re picking up chicks for our second time, almost exactly one year from our first time being parents of little chicken babies.

There is quite a bit of preparation required. Fortunately, everything I built to brood last year has been patiently waiting for me to unroll and set back up, though we basically had to clear out the basement. Nothing like a big project to necessitate early spring cleaning.

I’ve been nagging our mill since the beginning of February to get the starter feed we needed, and with nothing conclusive via email, I started calling at the end of last week. The courier service picked up a day late, then didn’t ship out from their sorting facility the next day as was expected. So, despite my best efforts, the feed will be arriving at least a day later than we needed. I made a call to a small retail feed shop, they had some good stuff, and Beth was able to secure a bag.

Our time to prepare is further condensed, as we are planning on visiting Beth’s family in Topeka. We were able to work out with Cackle Hatchery to pick up Monday afternoon instead of Tuesday morning so we could make it a detour on our ride back. Springfield is quite a drive from St. Louis, but we decided again to save the little buggers the trauma of being sent through the U.S. Mail. We set up our Compost Courier for Monday’s route before she left the farm today. A couple needed tweaks to the big coop were squeezed in, and made our second trip to Menards in two days.

All this hard work and stress will melt when we pick up a box of some of the most adorable creatures on the planet. I imagine this to be a small glimpse of what being new parents is like — tired, frazzled, but overjoyed. You can’t look at these helpless fluffs and not be happy. We’ll listen to them chirp all the way home (I’ll try not to speed and get a ticket again this time). Then, one by one we’ll take them out, dipping their beaks in water to show them how to drink and checking their bums for pasties.

Soon, they’ll be darting around. Energetic cotton balls running around on toothpick legs. Especially when I give them an “egg party” — hardboiled, peeled, and crushed eggs, they go crazy. Some of their personalities will become apparent right away. Last year, a couple showed us affection within their first week or two, and it has lasted to this day.

Hopefully we have enough juice left Thursday to throw a birthday party for the girls at the farm, who went through this same experience last year. We really do want to celebrate with them. Our idea was a huge bowl of grapes with a candle in the middle. I don’t think there’s anything they’d rather fight over.