246 Feet!!!???

The weather is not being all that co-operative and we are finding ourselves in a bit of planting withdrawal.  The weather has been all over the map, hot days, frosty cold nights – cool, cloudy rainy days – or down right ugly monsoon rain and howling winds.  We are scared for our garden…….. and there is decidedly more laughter, and maybe even some pitying looks from the neighbours!   It really could be the garden that kills us!

So what do we do instead?? The one thing we know we have down pat, right!?? Chickens!!! We kept nice healthy chickens all through the winter – they give us amazing eggs.  Everyone loves our eggs and we are having a bit of a time keeping up with the demand from our neighbours and friends. We got this!! It’s early spring, well…. mid May to be exact, and we are hunting all over for small, plastic kiddie pools.  Why you might ask!?  Well for the chickens of course!  Chuck has ordered up some more laying chicks to add to our flock. 30 of them to be exact.  Oh, and while he was at it, he and Darren decided ” why don’t we try our hand at a few turkeys”…. nice fresh turkeys would be great this fall – it can’t really be much different than chickens right?  The little critters will be arriving in a week or so as little, newly hatched, babies only a few days old.  How fun!

Now, last summer, when we got the original laying chickens, they were about 12 weeks old.  Pretty much ready to go straight into the chicken coop and outside if they wanted to.  These new babies are going to have to be inside for a few weeks, until they grow up a bit and get their feathers. So, we are trudging around looking not only for the pools but also heat lamps, chick feeders and small water containers for them to drink from.  Really it is almost like bringing a baby home from the hospital.  They need to be warm, but not too warm.  They need to be shown how to eat and drink (as previously mentioned – not the brightest birds!!).  They cannot get wet or cold, and they can’t be crowded….. hence the kiddie pools.  The pools are round and this stops them from all crowding into the corner and suffocating each other – yes, you heard me.  A round pool is necessary to keep them from killing each other.  One pool for the laying chicks and one pool for the turkeys – check.  Two heat lamps – check.  Two each of mini feeders and mini waterers – check.

The arrival day comes, and look!….. we have sweet, fuzzy little baby chicks – laying hens and turkeys!  SO CUTE!  The turkeys in particular are really cute.  We get them all settled in their little pools – check and make sure that they are warm enough and then spend a little time showing them how to eat and drink.  I believe Fallon put a couple of laying chicks in with the turkeys to help with with the food and drink issue.  Believe it or not, the turkeys are even more stupid than the chickens. They were just so sweet to watch!   They would eat and then have a little drink, then they would go and stand under the heat lamp.  With a nice full tummy and some heat, the little things would literally fall asleep on their feet – and fall over! Or they would lay down under the lamp and then you would see their little heads bob and then – poof – they were out cold.  The turkeys loved to let us hold them and would fall asleep in our hands. Cuteness overload.

And man can these little suckers eat!  Once shown how, they never stopped.  Ever.  Never ever.  Three times a day, everyday, Chuck diligently topped up their water and food, he checked to make sure they were warm enough and everyone was happy.  Oh they were happy alright!  So happy they pretty much never stopped growing either! In no time they were a mass of chirping, pooping, eating machines.  They also never shut up! Constant chirping, and clucking and wing flapping squawking!!!  40 of them! You blinked and they grew an inch…. within days – the little buggers were leaping out of their little pools – we would find them wandering around the floor of the room in the basement where we were keeping them.  The turkeys were outgrowing the chicks in leaps and bounds.  And they were escaping too!!  Time for a fence….. Chuck grabbed some two by fours, the staple gun and some plastic wiring and got to work finding a way to fence in the pools.  And voila! No more chasing the little buggers around the room!  Man Chuck is getting good at this farmer stuff isn’t he???

We are quickly realizing that more is definitely harder when it comes to chickens and buying babies means a lot more work. And there is no time to dawdle over the work either, because, yes, we have failed to learn from the previous lessons this farm has seen fit to give us…. you know, start small, see how it goes – so we have a whole new set of baby chicks coming in 2 weeks time…. meat birds! Which we will only keep for about 12 weeks – after which they will be culled ( a nicer word than “killed”).  We ordered 25 of those – but the meat chick lady had extra and asked if we wanted 10 more…. so of course Chuck said yes.

Oh and in case you didn’t see the post….. our rabbit Dixie just had babies again…… 11 of them!   So for those of you who are counting:   10 Turkeys + 75 Meat and Laying Hens + 6 Adult Rabbits + 11 Baby Rabbits + 1 Dog + 1 Cat =  246 Animal Feet!

Now I am off to do my pasty butt review….. but that is a story for next time!