I am so elated. Thrilled beyond measure.
My babies arrived this morning. 75 chirping, hungry, sweet little balls of fluff.
I got a call at 7:11 from Karen at the post office. I was still in bed, asleep, after having spent a very quiet night at the farm all by myself. The boys were gone, Kent was gone, and it was just the cat, the dog and the rabbit for company. It's hard to go to bed when there is no noise you are wanting to retreat from.
The minute I hung up, I flew out of bed, got dressed and went downstairs to make a pot of tea, feed the animals and check on my brooder. All was going well until I realized that one of my brand new heat lamps wasn't working. I called Kent and left a message, called my friend to let her know that I was coming to pick up Hadley and Harrison, and made a quick breakfast. I threw dry cereal and bananas in a bag for the boys, grabbed my broken heat lamp, and tossed everything in the car.
By 9:15, I had driven to Fayetteville to pick up the boys, stopped at Lindemann's to get a new heat lamp bulb, and set off for the New Ulm post office.
When we walked into this tiny post office we immediately heard a cacophony of chirping. Karen the postmistress brought out a very small box, maybe 24" X 18". That was it. One very small box packed full of tiny sweet babies. Um, I mean chickens. Meat chickens. The kind you eat.
These chickens are shipped the day they are born so my chicks were, at most, 24 hours old.
We got them home, set up the new warmer lights, filled the water and feeders and took the chicks out of the box one by one, first dipping their beaks in water to let them know it was there. They immediately started drinking and eating and moving about. Like children, each one of these chicks was different. One with very large legs, some quiet, some vocal, some shy, others quite assertive.
I am sticking with my vow. I am not naming a one of them. Not one.
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