As of today, we have eight chickens and one rooster. Over the course of the past few years, we've gone from starting with sixteen hens to three dozen to what we have now. This includes hatching our own and ordering day old chicks on line from McMurrary Hatchery.
When we ordered the chicks on line, we had no idea what to expect. They came on Memorial Day one year. They were shipped overnight through the US Post office. Sure enough we got call on Memorial Day that the chicks were in and to please come pick them up as soon as possible. When we got to the loading dock, there on a shelf was not just our box of chicks but three others. The box was very small compared to what we expected. It was about the size of small box of pears you would get online. And there were holes everywhere. We got the chicks home and had a child's small plastic pool ready to go for them, water and food. Little did I know that when you first pick up the baby chick, you have to put their beak in the water then the food so they know where they eat and drink. Farmer Ken knew this, but neglected to tell me, so here are 36 chicks chirping away and as quickly as we could, picked them up one by one and introduced them to their first drink and eat!
It was very exiting and they were so cute. They are a little ball of fuzz. I am happy to say we did not lose one chick. But that was quite a few years ago and since then we've hatched our own. It's truly amazing to watch a hen raise a chick. She showed them everything. How to scratch for food and drink. How to get warm up under her wings. It was very cool to see and she did all the work. We only had to observe and make sure there was fresh water and food.
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