NOW PLAYING: Peeps!

1 December, 1999
It may seem to be a little strange to be writing about baby chickens in December, since that mostly seems to be a Spring Thing, but we got a batch of 30 Rhode Island Reds in the mail a month ago.

Yes, in the mail. We ordered them from McMurray Hatchery in Iowa, and they've been doing this sort of thing for a long, long time. We had been given a shipping date and we told the folks at our local Post Office that they could expect a box of peeps at anytime in the next three days. They offered to give us a call when they came in -- it's nice to live in a small town.

So at 6:45 one morning we got a call and we cruised down to the Post Office to pick up a ventilated box full of little peepers. We had an old kiddie swimming pool which we filled with wood shavings to use as our brooder, and our new peeps seemed fine in their new home. We discovered that the folks at McMurray had included an "extra" peep in the box -- different from all the others. We immediately named this one "Chicken Hawk," but we think that it's a Dominique or a Barred Plymouth Rock. Very pretty.

There were only two others that were easily distinguishable from the rest: "Yellow Boy" and "Todd."

Yellow Boy was just that -- a little yellow peep. Whereas the rest of our 'Reds had a "rusty" color to them, Yellow Boy was just what the traditional chick looks like. Yellow Boy has since acquired the coloration of the rest of the flock (and seems also to actually be a hen) and is harder to pick out now.

Todd was a special case. There was obviously something "not quite right" with him, as he'd cock his head to one side and run in circles. The way we got to "Todd" as a name is a little less than P.C., so I'll not go into the explanation. Eventually, Todd began to hold his head completely upside down, had trouble eating and drinking and we had to separate him from the other peeps. We talked to a few folks familiar with chicks, made a phone call to McMurray and decided that Todd wasn't going to get any better -- there was obviously a physical problem with him and there was no point in extending his miserable little existence. That was sad, and tough to do all the way around.

BUT -- the rest of the peeps are doing very well, and with considerable help from my folks, we converted an old tobacco-drying barn into the Best Over-Engineered Chicken Coop in our area. This place has got roosts, nesting boxes, controlled ventilation, and a protected outdoor run for these pampered peeps.

At about a month old, the peepers got too big for the pool and we gave them the boot out to the coop. They've got a lot of room to run around in, and are making the most of it. We've had them out in their run on a nice sunny day (though right now it's a little too nippy for them to be outside -- we've lowered the heat lamps down a foot or so to help keep them warm; we don't want any peep-sicles!), and next spring I imagine they'll spend most of their time out there.

The Wife and I are enjoying our little chicken "adventure" -- going out and watching the chickens be chickens is a hell of a lot better that what's on TV, and now Wifey is talking about getting a couple of goats next spring, too. Seems that she has a friend who wants a rooster and has a pair of goats that we can have as a "trade"...

Fresh eggs and home-made goat cheese. Mmmm-mmmm! Now, what was my cholesterol reading again?

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