Baby Chicks at the Learning Farm

Our Baby Chicks Have Arrived!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

During the past few weeks, we’ve been spending tons of time preparing for the arrival of our new baby chicks!  This is not my first time to be involved in raising chicks at the Learning Farm, but it is my first time to plan, coordinate, and manage the effort.  Who knew there would be quite so much to do?!?!? 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  I was very much looking forward to this opportunity.  But taking this on while also continuing to care for our current adult flock of chickens, as well as our small “backyard chicken” flock – well, it’s a lot to juggle!

Long before we started our chick preparations, I spent innumerable hours reading, researching, interviewing and taking copious notes on the best ways to raise chicks.  Of course, no two experts agree on how to best do everything – so to help organize it in my own mind, I decided to make a table (which grew to 8 pages in length!), comparing the various words of advice and suggestions.  From there I could more easily compare and choose what made the most sense to me.

One huge task was simply cleaning up our winter hen house (now to serve as our “chick house”). There was also equipment and supplies to procure and prepare.  We already had some items here on the farm that had been used with previous flocks of chicks; they needed to be located and then cleaned and sanitized.  Other items needed to be purchased new.  Once everything was gathered and ready, we began the set up the brooder. 

About 9:00 a.m. last Sunday morning, I received a phone message that the chicks had been shipped. If all went well, they would arrive on Monday morning (and I would receive an early morning phone call from the post office letting me know that I could come pick them up).  I came into work on Sunday afternoon to finalize preparations, and by late Sunday afternoon, all was ready and waiting.

 

I went to bed on Sunday night with the anticipation of a child on Christmas Eve.  Sure enough, at 5:30 a.m. the phone rang.  “Your chicks are here!”  I assumed that I would be able to come and get them right then, but the post office staff said that I needed to wait until they opened at 8:00 a.m.  L

After a quick breakfast, I got dressed, made a stop at the farm to make a final check on the temperature of the brooder and to let Anya know that she could now fill the chick waterers – then headed to the post office! 

 

One hundred chicks shipped in one medium-sized box.  Wow!  I had forgotten just how small chicks are when they’re only 1-day-old!

 

I timed the arrival of these chicks in part so that our first two summer farm camps – Little Sprouts and Sweet Peas – could have the opportunity to see them before their camps ended.  I knew that timing would add a lot of work to an already busy time on the Learning Farm – but I wasn’t fully prepared for just how much work these babes would be!  Which is why this post is a bit belated – coming nearly a full week after the arrival of our chicks.

My goal is to make briefer, more frequent posts during the coming weeks – along with photos – so that you can share in the fun, watching our new girls grow up! 

 

 

 

 

One hundred chicks to care for and raise to adulthood!  What a journey it will no doubt be…

 

Chicken Jokes!

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Who over the age of five hasn’t heard this joke?  The most common reply is, "To get to the other side."  But I've also heard a few other silly replies, such as, "Because she didn't want to lay it on the line."  :)

Kids love silly jokes, and so do I!  I often end our chicken tours, chicken camps, and other chicken-focused presentations with a few chicken jokes -- and I have a list of "a dozen" chicken jokes that I usually share.  But at the end of our spring Great Garden Gang camp, during our end-of-camp celebration, some of the campers shared some new chicken jokes with me -- ones that I had never heard before.  And some of them were quite clever and very funny.

The idea came to me that perhaps I should start adding to my collection of twelve, and to see just how many chicken jokes I could collect.  A hundred?  Two hundred?  More?  

So, do you know any chicken jokes?  Would you be willing to share them with me?  If so, please send them along -- either by posting them as a comment on this blog, or by emailing me at sgaughan@prairiecrossing.com.

Let's see how many different chicken jokes we can pull together! Egg jokes count, too! 

Q.  Why was the chicken bad?

A.  Because she hatched from a rotten egg!

Egg-cellent!  :)

Baby Chicks!

Baby Chicks – 
Coming to the Learning Farm!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

This afternoon I ordered 100 baby chicks of six heritage chicken breeds for the Prairie Crossing Learning Farm!  I’ve been reading and researching and planning for this for what seems like a very long time.  I’ve gathered a ton of information, as well as most of the necessary equipment and supplies – but somehow actually making the order today was very nerve-racking for me.

Am I really prepared to raise these babies?  I helped out 2½ years ago, when we started our last flock from 1-day-old chicks – but I was only one of several farm staff that checked on them daily, to make sure they had enough food and water – and once I helped clean up some of the chicks that had paste-y butt (yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like!).  But I was not the person responsible that time, I was just helping out.  Now I am the one responsible, and the idea makes me more than a little nervous.

But it also makes me incredibly excited!  We are going to have chicks on the Learning Farm soon – and I’m going to be up to my ears in fluffy, tumbling, peeping baby chickens!  Yes, I’m nervous – as any “new parent” would be – but I can’t wait!

Be sure to check this hen blog regularly for chick updates and photos!

Do Chickens Eat Snakes?

A Snake for all Chickens!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

What an interesting new experience for both me and the chickens yesterday!

During some of his tractor work in our farm fields, Luis found a medium-sized garter snake lying dead nearby.  Although there was only a small trickle of blood near its mouth, Luis suspected that he probably unknowingly killed the young snake with the tractor and/or whatever farm implement he was pulling behind it. 

Not wanting the snake to have died in vain, I asked Luis whether I could feed it to the chickens.  He readily agreed, but also asked if I thought the chickens would be afraid of it.  I didn’t.  Chickens are omnivores, and I expected to watch a game of chicken tug-o-war.

I brought the snake over to the flock and tossed its lifeless body over the electric fence.  The chickens had, of course run over to me expecting a food handout, but they were totally unsure whether or not this thing I had tossed in was food or not. 

Several of them gathered around, staring at it.  You could just hear them saying, “What do you think it is?”  “I don’t know.  What do you think it is?” 

“Do you think we’re supposed to eat it?”  “I don’t know.  It doesn’t look edible to me!” 

“Try it.”  “No way!  You try it!”

After waiting and watching for a while, I decided that maybe showing them more of the snake’s blood and guts would help.  So, I took the snake out, cut it in half, and tossed half of it back in again.  I receive the same comical response.

Finally, one of the “less-chicken” chickens pecked at the limp half-snake-body.  By doing so she, of course, caused the snake’s body to wiggle, and all the watching chickens simultaneously jumped back in surprise.  I could barely contain my laughter.

After another moment, another chicken (or perhaps the same one) took another stab at it – and finally decided to pick it up the wiggly object and try it out.  Then the chase was on.

I’ve seen this happen many times before when one chicken has something to eat that everyone else wants to share.  The “lucky” chicken is chased around and around the chicken yard – until they either give up the treasured morsel, or it’s stolen away, or they manage to finally eat all or part of it.

In this case, the brave snake-eating chicken was able to elude her pursuers – and finally gulp down the entire half-snake-body.  It was kind of amazing to watch. 

But then I started to worry about that much snake inside one chicken’s crop.  So, I took the remaining half-snake-body, cut it into four smaller pieces, and tossed them into the chicken yard – and this time watched four different chickens enjoy their snake-treat without any hesitation!