The same day the freeze dryer showed up.. so did our chickens! Last Thursday morning Mitchell got a call from the post office saying out chicks had arrived and were ready for pick up. After dropping Brooklynn off at school, the little girls and I drove to the post office. I could hear them as soon as I walked into the building just peeping away. Sawyer was so excited about the chicks. The whole way home she kept telling them, “Shh it’s okay little guys.” They still peeped all the way. By that time, she was not so gently telling them, “OKAY. Be quiet. We are getting out!”
Getting them home
Sawyer and Ellisyn could not get out of their seats fast enough when we got home. They were so excited to see the chickens. We took them to the garage and set up the water in the brooder. Once they had water, I carefully tipped their box and let the chickens out. There were a couple little guys that didn’t want to hop out so those were the ones I let sit in the box and let the girls pet them. They thought that was just the coolest thing.
Food for chicks
Mitchell planned to stop and grab food on his way home but the chicks were obviously hungry so I took the girls to buy food. Walking through Atwoods, Sawyer wanted to stop and look at the chicks they had as well as the “chicken houses.” She told me she did not want to eat out chickens because then they would be all gone. I explained to her that these were meant for us to eat. She asked if we could get new ones that we don’t eat after these ones were all gone. Of course Daddy said yes! When we got back home the girls didn’t even try to go to the front door, they headed straight for the garage. We fed the chicks and pet them some more. It took a lot of coaxing but I did finally get them in the house… just in time for the freeze dryer to be delivered!
Silly names and songs
When Brooklynn got home from school the first thing she did was go looking for chickens. She played with them and held them while I “affectionately” called each one she picked up silly names to remind the kids(and the chickens) they would be eaten. I called them names like Chicken Wing, Chicken Nugget, Chicken Sandwich, and Chicken Breast. Brooklynn tried to “calm” them by singing the Chicken Wing song. If you don’t know it, here you go. But warning!! it may be stuck in your head the rest of the day. Apparently Brooklynn has the magic touch because the chick she was holding fell asleep in her hand.
Settling in
The chicks have settled in well over the last week. The girls are still crazy about them and ask to go check on them or hold them multiple times a day. They will stay in the brooder for a few weeks until they get a bit bigger. Mitchell is building them a moveable pen so that we can move them every so often. Eventually they will be big enough and will find their final resting place… in our bellies!
We will update as they get bigger and we get closer to eating them!
--Alysha
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