Fifty-two baby chicks!
Thanks to the nor'easter last week that cancelled all the Steamship Authority ferries, these little ladies were stuck on the mainland for an extra day. They were only a day old, had traveled all the way from Iowa and required heat, food, and water, none of which were available to them in the Wareham post office. We were very worried.
Only one died on the journey over, but we lost three more little ones the first few days. Now it has been a week, and the remaining 48 chicks seem healthy and strong, running speedily around their brood box in our basement. They are eating a ton, growing rapidly, and will soon be too big for their current home. We'll then move them into the chicken coop, and be enjoying (and selling) their eggs come April.
Something I love about ordering chicks is that for every order of 25, Murray McMurray-- the hatchery we ordered them from-- adds one rare breed mystery chick. We can only distinguish one of the mysteries from the others right now, and she looks like a little owl. Possibly one of the cutest things I have ever seen.
In other chicken news, our rooster has disappeared. The other day, the small flock was out roaming around when Christian heard a cacophony of screeches and squawks. Later that afternoon, the ladies returned to the coop without their king, so we can only assume it was a hawk or raccoon attack that took him down. The good news is, the rooster did his job: farms keep roosters around just for predator protection, because they sacrifice themselves for the sake of the flock. Way to go Rooster, and so long!
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