Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Shake your tail feathers



It is amazing to see the chicks growing! The massacre survivors - Stevie and Blondie - have been with us for just over a week and the other four for only one week. We are already seeing tail feathers, real wings, and even a small comb on Stevie (the middle chick in the top photo). You can also tell by their weight - Stevie and Blondie have a few ounces on the other four. They definitely feel heavier when you pick them up (something that definitely gets their wings flappin').
Keith picked up a new tub today as we are quickly running out of room in our current housing. We had better get busy on getting the coop built!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

And then there were 17

After the trauma of the massacre, Keith contacted the hatchery to let them know what had happened. Come to find out, the USPS is not supposed to just leave live chicks on the porch in plain view of chicken-eating-varmints. Who'd a thunk that...anyway the hatchery said they would ship out a new batch at no charge. That was yesterday. This morning as Keith was on the road to work - he got a call that our new guests had arrived. He quickly turned around, headed back home and was able to get the chicks settled in their new temporary quarters before heading back to work (again).

They are sooo cute.


Now I can't tell Blondie and Steve from the rest of the flock. Alas, we are only going to be keeping 6 of them as the rest are going on to new pastures.

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Windy Acres Chicken Massacre of 2009

As I was driving a co-worker home, in my new 2006 Dodge Charger R/T, the phone rang, and I saw it was my husband. I quickly called him back, and after I said hello, all I heard was, cheep cheep, cheep cheep, cheep cheep, cheep cheep...

He gave me the news that our new chicks had arrived, but the good news was followed by very sad news. Out of 15 chicks that we had ordered, only 2 had survived. Something had gotten into the box, 4 chicks were found dead, 9 were gone. The scene of the crime was a mess of blood and feathers.



The only clue left was a tuft of chicken feathers sitting near the deck behind the house.



Upon investigation of all the facts, it turns out that the hatchery had transposed 2 numbers of his cell phone, so the post office never notified us that the chicks had been delivered.

So, we are left with two traumatized chicks, that I have named, Blondie and Stevie. Two dogs that are excited about our new arrivals. In fact, Bogey our older dog, decided to pick Stevie up for further examination. He quickly dropped the frazzled and now somewhat slimy chick upon command.

After getting them temporarily situated in a safe place, we went to Tractor Supply and got the supplies we needed to host our new guests.



They have been fed, watered, and given some tender loving care. They quickly went to sleep with bellies full, and a warming lamp over their heads.

DH has already set a trap for the suspected perpetrator of the massacre, a raccoon we had scene the night before. After putting up the chicks, he went to let the dogs back in. Our intrepid hunter Abbey was sniffing, whining, and scratching at the deck, as if there were something underneath. He later saw the same raccoon sniffing at the trap. Hopefully, we'll catch the rascal in the next night. What we'll do about it then is anyone's guess.

Where We Are

2 acres nestled in between New Palestine and Greenfield, Indiana.