The daffodils are blooming, the song birds greet the dawn with a chorus of their sweet chirping and trilling, the grass is looking shaggier, our first mamma goat is due to kid in 3 weeks, and we now have tiny pompoms inhabiting a corner in the barn. Yep, meat chicken batch #1 has now taken up residence. It's always exciting when the first batch of chicks is in the barn; over the course of the winter, you forget how adorable the puff balls are and how sweet their little cheeping is.
The baby Cornish roasters arrived this morning with the typical phone call that comes when everyone is still in bed. ;) But never fear! We were semi-prepared this time! Yesterday afternoon, Dad, Emi and I got the barn all cleaned out (all that deep bedding that has been building up over the winter) and the brooder area set up. All we had to do was flip on the heat lamps and fill the waters. Actually, everything feels too clean now - there's an echo. Oh well. We've filled the cavernous feel with the never ceasing peeping of chicks. ^_^
After watching the news last night, we (okay, maybe it was just me) started thinking that the chick's box was going to get stuck in the Denver airport since they had a lovely winter storm blow in. (The very first time we bought chicks, they got stuck there for several days. Needless to say, it was a rough start to raising poultry.) But that pessimistic voice in my head was quickly silenced. All of the chicks survived the trip, and they're all feisty little goobers.
And thus begins a summer of meat chickens. We learned from last year though - I put a cap on how many chickens we'll grow. 300 chickens is too many. ;)
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