Is there anyone who does not love spring? The very idea of new growth, new buds, new lambs, birds, cheeps. New babies, new life. It's so hard to protect it -- to care for those babies, puppies, chicks, tender flowers, vegetable seedlings -- but we sign onto it and indeed, we look forward to the day the challenge begins. We know it is grueling stuff and yet we choose it and we can't wait to get started.
This, to some extent, describes our stance in the matter of chickens. (Babies and gardens too, but I'll just stay with chickens.) We know that bringing in new cheeps will be a headache. It will double our work. There may be issues -- of health, of integration, of predator temptation. (Java is no temptation for anything less than a mountain lion, but a young chicken? Yum!)
And still, we wake up this morning wanting to move forward with the project (or at least not resign yet).
But first, there is breakfast. It's so late that it makes no sense to eat it in the sun room. The sun has moved on. To the front room.
We spend the rest of the morning cleaning -- the robot sweeps, I clean the remaining surfaces, Ed scrubs old containers for use in the cheep box. Occasionally, one of us will have picked up additional bits of information about chick care. We share it and puzzle over how to proceed. (For example: "The guy in the store said to add electrolytes to the water, but here it says you can use apple cider vinegar instead..." "Oh, but here it says that's totally an old wives tale! They say to stick with plain water" "And what about grits? Do we add them to the food day one? There are twenty different opinions on this!" And so on.)
The coming of new life hangs in the air.
In the afternoon, we take a break from everything and go out to the nearby disc golf course. It's a beautiful day once more. There is only a thin band of snow left on the ground...
It surprises us no end that the course does not open until May 1st. But, we've learned to set up our own goal posts (a wicker basket) and the fields are open and inviting and the sound of sandhill cranes occasionally causes us to pause and look up...
It is a beautiful day to be outdoors!
In the evening, the young family comes for dinner, which happens to include a hefty chicken component but oh well! That's grocery chickens, not the beautiful quirky funny annoying birds that we pander to here at the farmette!
We show Snowdrop the set up.
A pooper scooper! She is tickled by that!
Isn't it grand to eat dinner by the light of the day?!
Stories flow...
Hearts soar.
Smiles linger for a long long time.
This, to some extent, describes our stance in the matter of chickens. (Babies and gardens too, but I'll just stay with chickens.) We know that bringing in new cheeps will be a headache. It will double our work. There may be issues -- of health, of integration, of predator temptation. (Java is no temptation for anything less than a mountain lion, but a young chicken? Yum!)
And still, we wake up this morning wanting to move forward with the project (or at least not resign yet).
But first, there is breakfast. It's so late that it makes no sense to eat it in the sun room. The sun has moved on. To the front room.
We spend the rest of the morning cleaning -- the robot sweeps, I clean the remaining surfaces, Ed scrubs old containers for use in the cheep box. Occasionally, one of us will have picked up additional bits of information about chick care. We share it and puzzle over how to proceed. (For example: "The guy in the store said to add electrolytes to the water, but here it says you can use apple cider vinegar instead..." "Oh, but here it says that's totally an old wives tale! They say to stick with plain water" "And what about grits? Do we add them to the food day one? There are twenty different opinions on this!" And so on.)
The coming of new life hangs in the air.
In the afternoon, we take a break from everything and go out to the nearby disc golf course. It's a beautiful day once more. There is only a thin band of snow left on the ground...
It surprises us no end that the course does not open until May 1st. But, we've learned to set up our own goal posts (a wicker basket) and the fields are open and inviting and the sound of sandhill cranes occasionally causes us to pause and look up...
It is a beautiful day to be outdoors!
In the evening, the young family comes for dinner, which happens to include a hefty chicken component but oh well! That's grocery chickens, not the beautiful quirky funny annoying birds that we pander to here at the farmette!
We show Snowdrop the set up.
A pooper scooper! She is tickled by that!
Isn't it grand to eat dinner by the light of the day?!
Stories flow...
Hearts soar.
Smiles linger for a long long time.
You will have so much fun with the chicks... and so will Snowdrop! Chick hatching was a staple of my Sixth Grade Science classes, super popular with the kids. Raising them is not as difficult as you might expect... we simply kept them in a large cardboard box with (I think cut up newspaper on the bottom) and let them come out to play when there was time. Want quiet? Just cover the box and they quiet down. Sprinkle feed in the box and have a dish of water... all set! Even a dozen is easy enough to live with. They grow up quickly!
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