Author: Farmerhappygoose

Well, when life (or yourself) throws you chicks… make it an adventure!

As it has been several years since I raised and butchered my own meat birds I decided that it was time to do so this year. I just cannot get myself to fully enjoy the flavor of a grocery store bird, the flavor and texture of a home raised chicken is just always faaaar superior. I challenge you to raise a few of your own and test my theory. I ordered a bunch for myself and bunch for my mom as she was also feeling the need to raise some good birds. In total, 80 meat chicks ordered. The funny part about this story is that when I ordered I was not given a specific ship date, I figured then that I wouldn’t get my order until late spring at least as most of the hatchery’s were stating on their websites that most of their chicks were out of stock until almost summer. So, you may imagine my surprise (and panic) when I randomly checked my email Tuesday night last week and read that yes, I have a ship date, and YES, that ship date was that day. The chicks were already in the mail! Now, if you have never ordered chicks off a website just know that they usually arrive within 1-2 days of being shipped, they expedite shipping to give the birds the best chance to make it to their destination alive. And so, there was a very real possibility of them arriving the next morning. I had an hour and thirty minutes until I left for work and so I ran around gathering all of the equipment we had on hand for the babies. The challenge with getting chicks this early in the year in Minnesota is that the weather tends to fluctuate drastically from really warm days to really cold and snowy days making it hard to keep an even, warm temperature for the babies. Chicks need a very warm environment otherwise they will get too cold, huddle up together and smother each-other trying to stay warm. This is where heat lamps and heavy quilts come in handy to warm a space. I used a couple of brooders that my dad had built for hens that were setting on eggs and hatching chicks two years ago. I used a couple of heat lamps per brooder and covered them with some quilts to trap the heat when the babies came.

Please forgive my lack of decent photos, I was rushing to set everything up and so was just snapping a few as I thought of it.

Thankfully, the call from the post office did not come until Thursday ( I work nights into days most weeks and so I would have needed to leave work to pick up the chicks if they came Wednesday.). What fun it was, to pick up a box full of cheeping little balls of fluff! Thankfully, none of them died during transit and they started to eat and drink like the little ravenous babies they are. Even thought these are meat birds the chick stage is always so much fun and watching them peck and scratch is pure delight. I have never had chicks this early but the spring life they have brought to the farm has been so much fun!

Moral of this story, when your chicks come early…just role with it!