we rushed to the post office. You see, for years we've been 'talking' about raising our own brood of chickens, but that's as far as it went. Our children kept begging us for animals, at least some hens.
Merv didn't grow up on a farm, so this was a new adventure. But I grew up on what we always named our little 'McDonald Farm' housing chickens, a few ducks, a pair of geese, two little grey donkeys, a couple goats that would produce kids every year, and even a turkey or two. We never butchered any of these animals. We only kept them as pets and always had our own eggs. We lived along a busy street where we would frequently see cars stopped along the road simply to watch and photographic our interesting little meadow. As a young girl before the age of ten, my Daddy used to raise steers, pigs, and chicks. He had two chicken houses. The one housed 10,000 baby chicks and the second 20,000 peeps. But somehow along the road of life, I graduated from a country girl to seemingly a city girl. Ordering chicks and raising them after not being around animals for so long seemed like a very scary thing.
But it was high time to take some action and finally on February 23, 2012, after twenty-one years of married life, I made a phone call to Reich's Poultry Farms from Marietta, PA and ordered 25 Cornish X Rocks straight run chicks to raise for meat, 15 Golden Red pullets, an extra cockerel which they included, and 15 Pearl Guinea Keets. Their earliest ship date was March 26. I always grew up around Rhode Island Reds, but the reason I chose the Golden Reds is because these world champion birds have won egg laying contests in every country. They are outstanding producers of large brown eggs that have excellent color, shape, shell texture, and strength, and have the capability to produce 275 to 300 eggs on less feed than any other brown egg layer. They also lay well in extreme cold weather. It's the hen my friend recommended we try.
I told the girls about the chick order soon after the phone call, but we waited to tell the boys until Saturday, only a few days before they arrived. Merv, the boys, and I needed to make a trip to Tractor Supply to purchase our needed supplies of raising chicks: a couple heat lamps, feeders, and waterers. We planned to purchase a couple chicks of a different breed to add some variety to our little flock, when Merv noticed a sign saying that six was the limit because of some farm rules. We weren't not interested in buying six as we felt like we had enough right now to raise so we needed to break the news to the boys that we would be expecting chicks in a few days. That helped to ease the disappointment at the farm store and by now, they were very excited.
Reich's Poultry had planned to ship the chicks on Monday March 26, but they were delayed a day. I made sure the post office knew about the arriving chicks and gave them our home phone number. So at 6 AM this morning, we got the awaited phone call to the start of our own little McDonald Farm!
The night before, Braden mentioned that he wanted to go along to the post office. Merv didn't think anyone would go along and I think he was rather surprised when I mentioned going along. I went upstairs then asked Landon if he wants to ride along, but he said he was too tired. Then I woke Braden who is normally an early bird, and he was out of bed and dressed within five minutes. He was the only one of the children who rode along to the post office, his eyes beaming and shining with excitement.
So we decided that the children may play with them, hold them, and touch them all they want because all too soon, their little balls of fluff will be gone.
Braden didn't think this little one would be able to sit on my shoulder very long and he kept repositioning it which excited the little chick so much that it pooed on Mama.
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