May 7: Moving to the big box

After 5 days, the chicks seemed ready to move to the Big Cardboard Box. We installed dowel rod through the middle of the box as a perch, but the chicks either hopped awkwardly over it or used it for limbo. How low can you go? Their wing feathers were coming right along, and they began showing stubby little tails. When we first put them into their more spacious digs, they sprinted from side to side and flapped their wings.

The most exciting thing about the new box, visible in the upper left of the photo, is a staple. STAPLE! Staple, staple, staple! The chicks clustered around and pecked at it for some time before deciding that it was a) not good to eat and b) therefore not very interesting.
The prettiest bird we have so far is the brown Aracauda. It has the best wing pattern. The Dominique still have very sweet faces. The Brahma are starting to get the characteristic feathers on their feet.



Brown Araucana

Dominique

Brahma

Chicks come home, May 2

Day 1: Hilda and I got to Farm and Fleet soon after they opened at 8:30 to pick up our 10 chicks. Hilda had ordered them back in March. She read that a family needed 3 chickens to supply a sufficient number of eggs, but there was a minimum of 5 per variety, and we wanted at least two kinds. She ordered 5 Araucana (a.k.a., Easter egg chickens, named for the pastel blue and green eggs they lay) and 5 Buff Orpington. We had one receipt, but not the right one. Our order could not be found. Thus, we picked our chickens from the selection out front. We got our 5 Araucana, ranging from buff to chocolate brown, 2 Brahma, and 3 Dominique. The woman helping us threw a couple handfuls of pine chips in the bottom of a small box, then our chickens, and we were off.

Our chicks in their new home.

The chicks' first home was in a large plastic container. The good folks at Farm and Fleet had already dunked the beaks in water when they unpacked the chicks. All the books emphasize this practice as critically important when the chicks first arrive, as they get dehydrated in shipping. We were concerned that they didn't seem interested in the water when we installed them in the storage container. They did start drinking eventually. It was my first observation of their herd (or perhaps flock) mentality. One chick goes to the feeder and thinks, "FOOD!" All the other chicks run over, thinking, "Food, food, food, food." On that first day, following a feeding frenzy, one chick headed for the water: "DRINK!" And all the other chicks went over, "Drink, drink, drink, drink."



Top: Me with an Araucana. Center: Hilda with a Brahma. Bottom: Me with a Dominique

Several books I'd read suggested that one can learn to live in the moment from chickens. I know what that means now. When we take the food out to refill it, there is no squawking or fussing. The chicks stand around and scratch in the pine shavings. "Hmm. No food. No food, no food." The return of the food is always new and exciting. Yes, there are important life lessons one can get from watching chickens.

St. Fiacre

A few years ago, my friend Peg found a statue of St. Fiacre (fee-ACK-ray) when cleaning out her mom's condo. She gave it to us as a remembrance of her mother and our dear friend, Marge. Peg thought of us because the statue is holding a tree-planting spade. An internet search revealed that St. Fiacre is the patron saint of gardeners and hemorrhoids. When he moved from Ireland to France, he was told he could make a garden on any land he could clear in a day. His miracle was that as he dragged his spade across the ground, his garden sprouted up in its wake. Or something like that. Terry hung the statue on the wall of our house where we pat his head every day and ask him to bless our garden. And protect us from hemorrhoids.



Our statue of St. Fiacre

Mostly this blog is to share pictures of our chickens as they grow up, but I hope to post about the garden as well.