Chicken Fever Part 4: The Cure

Chicken Day finally came.  After months of suffering chicken fever I had a cure. I was picking up my first batch of chicks.  These eleven puffballs included eight Ameraucana/Easter Eggers, and three Welsummers. 

Each breed has its unique characteristics which I will cover in another post, but right now I just had a box full of tiny little fluffy things of various shapes and colours.  Oh my, were they cute. 

 

As I put each chick in the brooder I dipped its beak in the water so it would know how and where to drink.  The little ones figured this out quickly; they also learned quickly how to step on the edge of the waterer and tip the whole thing over.  Time to change the bedding.

Just like the books promised, the chicks would run around in the brooder, checking everything out, 

then en masse collapse face down for a nap. 

 

Feeding time, once they were able to eat from the feeders, was better than any reality show.  The feeder had 22 holes for 22 tiny heads to pop through to get food.  We had 11 chicks.  One would think that there would be no squabbles.  One would be terribly wrong.  If a chick had its head in a hole, another chick wanted that hole.  And another chick would be walking over those two chicks’ heads to get to the next hole.  And so on.

There is no study to back me up but I believe a person could scientifically prove that the volume of poop produced by 11 chicks could fill an olympic-sized swimming pool in a week.  Like I say, no studies yet.  Who wants to be that scientist?  I quickly realized that cleaning out the brooder would be a regular twice weekly chore.  These chicks were producing.  And I had more chicks coming.  And another brooder to build to quarantine them in.  Because I was getting more chickens.

Oh yes, more chickens.