Picking Up Chicks

Today, Mr. Beloved and I went to our favorite hatchery and picked up 19 Buff Orpington chicks:  18 females and one male.  We have been without chickens for a year.  New baby chicks are so much fun.  I have done no art since my last post.  However, I have been thinking about it…  LOL!  Enjoy a few chick pics.

Many years ago, I got our first chicks home and in the brooder, then I sat down to watch them for a while and I noticed, with panic in my heart, that they were slowly, one by one, closing their eyes and falling face first into the bedding.  “Oh, no!  They’re dying!”  After a few minutes of wringing my hands, wondering what to do, I realized that they were just sleeping.  LOL!  They got x’s on their eyes, just like in the cartoons!  It’s hilarious.

After we got this batch all settled, we let Toby out in the garage and he screeched to a halt and his head went cockeyed and he looked at me like, “What’s that noise?”  He was intensely interested for about a minute and then was bored.  I didn’t get a good photo of him on the floor next to the brooder, because it was so dark.

We made this brooder to hold fifty chicks, many years ago from scrap wood and some screens that I found on the side of the road that someone was throwing away.  It has served us well, but after we are done with it for this year, I will be giving it away.  We will use something much smaller and more portable and easier to store for future batches.  This one is portable, because it has casters and can be rolled out of the way, but it has a large footprint and we need the space for other stuff.  I don’t believe we will be doing large batches of birds anymore.

Here is a photo of our first rooster, Girard.  He was the best rooster we ever had.  I hope our new one will be half as good.

As of the time of my typing this post, the chicks are several hours old and I just went down to check and there were NO EGGS!  They better get a move on!  LOL!

Welcome, welcome, little stranger,
Fear no harm, and fear no danger;
We are glad to see you here,
For you sing “Sweet Spring is near.”

— Louisa May Alcott