TheBanyanTree: hope sings

[paul]

Amen!  :)


The new batch of chickens arrived today.  Picked them up on the way to
work... I walked into the post office and heard them chirping from the
back room.  Really sweet sound.   Left them in the truck, R came a
half an hour later, took them home, and did the "scatter feed on the
newspaper and wet their beaks so they know where the water is"
routine.  Out of the box he had to put one chick down, it had a
broken/dislocated leg.  Well, one foot was pointing 180 degrees the
wrong way and the chick's eyes were already glazed (I can explain
'glazed' if you want).  Anyway, events occur.

So.  I'm at work and the way I understand the story, he 'bout wore
himself out over the chicks.  Says he had to check on them every 20
minutes or so.  I think this is really funny... Mr. Shoot All The Damn
Critters To Get Them Off The Feed Bill is stressing on baby chicks.
"But they are cute" he says.  Then he had to go to work for a bit.

I came home to an empty house, got a beer, changed clothes, checked
e-mail (nothing WaS but I did win a nice auction on eBay), fed the
woodstove, got a beer and went to see the chicks.  Yeah, R did a great
job.  And of course the chicks /are/ cute.  But...  I ordered 12 each
Black Star and Red Star (at 2.04 each) , and 12 Leghorns (at 1.95
each), all females.  Plus the 'free rare chicken'.  FreeRare is not a
Polish like last time.  Thank You Very Much, I don't need another
chicken that stupid ever again.  I don't know what FreeRare is but he
(I'm sure it's a he) is the largest chick in the entire group.  Maybe
he will crow pretty.  Anyway, to cover "shipping losses", I was
expecting like 13 of each kind + FreeRare, like 40 chicks in all.  Ok?

R says there are 55 chicks.  I didn't unpack the chicks and counting
baby chicks that are running around in a four by four foot box is like
counting droplets of mercury in a bowl.  Best I can tell, I received
12 Black Stars, 13 Red Stars, and a TON of Leghorns.  Huh, maybe they
had some extra Leghorns to get rid of?

55 chicks minus the one R had to put down and minus the Red Star that
was not doing at all well when I got home... the one I cupped in my
hand to get warm for an hour or so and decided to bring into the house
to get it warm by the woodstove (like I need a house chicken?)(on
carpet? with Wilma?) and remember that 2nd beer?  I was about to
burst.  Well, it's not easy to do the zipper and underwear stuff with
one hand.... but in the time it took to get from the barn to the EDC
and find a basket of feathers (for a nest), the chick woke up and got
all bright eyes like it was finally warm enough and Yeah! I feel
good!....  So I get to the house, do my stuff, chick is still looking
around, I walk from the bathroom to the livingroom, maybe 30 feet and
sit on the sofa, the chick says 'chirp', nestles down and goes to
sleep.  Cute.  I guess she got warm enough.  Says 'peep' a couple of
minutes later... and a few minutes later, well...  head rolls over and
shitshitshit.  shitshitdamn.

It's all part of having critters.

So... I have 53 chicks.  If they all live through the night.  Plus
another 18 chickens.

Oy.  And when they all start laying in 4.5 to 5 months from now...
minus out four roosters, I could be collecting up to 67 eggs a day.


paul
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