ReluctantFarmChick.com

The day I posted about a box that I picked up from the Post Office early one morning had the most hits in the short history of this blog.  I didn’t realize ya’ll were so thrilled by chicks, but hey - I aim to please, so here’s the update.

The chicks are still living in their box, but it’s starting to look like we need to really work on another option.  I feel badly for them - how will they survive moving from their cute little cozy garage condo to an out of the house dwelling?  Will they be warm enough?  We won’t just throw them out on the street.  I mean, we’re not that heartless.  We’ll make sure they move to appropriate enough accommodation.  But you know a mother’s heart.  Actually, that’s not true.  I’d probably be fine putting them down in the barn with all that hay to rummage through, poop on, and hide in, but Prince Farming is not interested in losing any chicks.

It’s amazing how fast chicks grow - in human terms they’re not even a month old, but in chicken time they’ve reached that full gangly, mostly ugly, very curious and brave tweenage stage.

This is not a stressed out tween - she’s(?) just coming to see what hand-outs I might have.  They absolutely love crickets and earthworms.  When they were tiny, we loved to watch the tug-of-war that ensued when we threw an earthworm into the box.  Such mayhem you’ve never seen.  Wish I could share pictures, but they moved way faster than my clicker-finger or camera shutter could deal with.

Prince Farming is having such fun trying to figure out what breeds of chicks we have.  We ordered the "rainbow mix" from the hatchery, guaranteed at least 5 varieties.  If any of you have ideas, leave them in the comments section - you have more chicken experience than we do, for sure. 

The white and yellow ones are always in the front.  The ones you can’t really see in this shot are ones that looked like chipmunks when they were tiny.  They still have the same coloring, but its all ruffled now - in this tween-age stage. 

Here’s another variety that have very scruffy necks - like their "neck hair" is way long and sticks out on end, like significant "bed head" - except we’d probably have to call it "bed-neck" in this case.

We knew they were maturing when we found a brave chick on top of their water jug.  Prince Farming rigged all sorts of things in their box to allow more of them to "roost" at the same time.  I’ve seen them all lined up on these rods - but the chicken ones jump down when I bring my camera by.

Ooh, wait - here’s one with more of them roosting.  There’s a bit of movement (probably scrambling to get down) but you get the idea

By the way - for those who were concerned about our first family of chicks (the ones we got unexpectedly and so weren’t totally prepared for), Prince Farming and I were working down at the barn recently and we heard chickens!!  We’ve actually seen the rooster a couple of times, but don’t know who else is a survivor.  This is truely a case of "Survival of the Fittest."  We’d carelessly left some chicken feed down there.  And there are puddles all around the barn, not to mention an entire breeding ground for worms and crickets, so they have fared really well - without our help, thank you very much.  Maybe that’s the way to go.

When scouting around for some cool farm shots last night, I remembered this little detail.  Maybe this sentry is the chicken guard of Gredemeer.  He is stationed right on the old barn door-post.  Proud, and cocky, and faithful - he’s been there from the beginning.

This week’s Topic on the Heads or Tails site is:  BOXES

And today is a perfect day to talk about boxes. Yesterday I made a phone call to the Post Office, asking whether they had a special delivery for me.  Nope - not yet.  This morning I woke up early and made the same phone call.  Steve (at the PO) didn’t even have to look through the mail - the box was in.  So I dragged myself out of bed and drove and a respectable speed the nine miles to the post office.  I walked through the door (6:47am) and I knew my box was there.  I totally knew.  This was my box:

I knew the box was there because I could HEAR it.  From outside.  I’m sure that Steve didn’t mind my coming to the PO before business hours, because it allowed them to do their work without the extra sound effects.  It’s amazing how much noise this box made.  When I got home and looked inside the box, this is what we found:

Thirty-something chicks.  They were hatched on Monday in northern Ohio, and mailed (priority mail) to us here in the boondocks.  How cute are they?  And LOUD!!!

Obviously, the chicks couldn’t stay for long in this box, so we moved them over to this:

We had to dip their little beaks into sugar water, and then into their starter food.  This is what introduced them to their sustenance for from now on out.  And they picked it up like champs.  Amazing.  Apparently baby chicks don’t need food for the first couple of days of life outside their eggs because they have reserves from their yolk sacs.  Who knew!!?  But around day 2 or 3, they start getting hungry and thirsty.  And we helped them out.  They arrived just in time.

By the way, this box is housed in another box. . . this one:

Prince Farming and our son made it good and cozy so that the chicks can’t get out, and the dogs can’t get in.  And this box is actually inside the garage, so other wild critters can’t get to them either.  For now.  They’ll live here for a while until they’re older, and until Prince Farming has figured out and built their out-door fortress.

When the kids got home from school, there was tons of excitement.  If these chicks look a little stressed, you can figure out why.  They’ve had a rough few days of life, but from now on out, I think they’ll be very happy in (and out) of their box

Hopefully these critters will do better than these did.  And here starts another chapter, or sub-story line, of my farm life.

You can play Heads or Tails too, or check out other BOX posts by clicking here.

One of the things I remember from my childhood is chickens.  We had them (bantams) in at least 2 places where we lived.  They were easy pets, and could be left on their own with occasional throwing out of a handful of food.  We didn’t have them for eggs - just as lawn decorations, I think.  So when we got the farm, I was certain I wanted chickens.  But Prince Farming is a light sleeper, and he didn’t want a rooster.  That was the one thing I did want - I mean, how quaint is it to be woken up in the morning by the crowing of a rooster.  But that was not meant to be.  Until recently.  A nearby farmer had a rooster.  He thought the rooster was lonely, so he brought over a hen.  The hen laid eggs.  The eggs hatched.  Then all of a sudden he had a family of chickens, and he didn’t want them around his horses.  One day I came home, and Prince Farming and our son were in the barn fixing up a place for this little family.

In this area there are wild dogs and other predators (racoons etc.) that make a chicken’s life slightly vulnerable.  So we were quite skeptical about their longevity.  Wild critters can get inside a chicken coop very easily.  Based on the time we had and the resources immediately available, Prince Farming rigged a really nice little coop.  Except not nice enough. 

The next day the family was down by a few chicks.  So it continued (despite renewed effort for their safety) until it was just one rooster and one chick.  One day we went down to the barn to take some food and we heard the rooster, but couldn’t find him.  Finally we looked up - and there he was in the rafter of the barn.

We also heard a chick (still really little - unable to fly) but couldn’t find the little guy ANYwhere.  It was the craziest thing.  Our daughter climbed up on some hay to look around - and she found the chick.  It was sitting on the rooster’s back up on the rafters.

How totally cool is that?  The only way for it to have gotten there would have been for it to climb on the rooster’s back before the rooster flew up.  Because there was no hay anywhere close by where they could have done it in small steps.  I just totally marvel at nature sometimes.  I know hens are nurturing and will guard their chicks to the death, but this rooster took on the care of that chick and did it well.  BTW - Our daughter took all these pictures - budding photographer that she is. 

Anyway - the rooster does crow.  People who take walks along the road have heard him.  We don’t hear him from the house because the barn is down the hill and a small distance from here.  That works for Prince Charming.  But now he’s caught the chicken bug. The rooster is all that’s left, and he wants more.  He brought home a catalog of all sorts of critters and the stuff one needs to keep them safe.  So I’m sure there will be more chickens in our future.  And they might even move up the hill to be closer to us - who knows?  But these chickens will be our local egg delivery as well as pets - Prince Farming LOVES farm fresh eggs - brown ones with bright yellow yolks.  Now THAT’S nutrition!