Chick Day

Today is chick day. Paul has finally consented but with a few strings attached. I can handle those strings: they are understandable and just.

And now for a confession that I will speak no where else. I might be rushing this.

After months upon months (geez! It might even be sneaking into a year now!) of convincing, the day is upon me and I am not quite ready. The reason I say this is due to the garage door being broken. It is really cold in the garage now and I'm afraid to put the chicks in there. Even with a heat lamp.

I know, most people put them in the kitchen, or a study or something ... but it touches too close to one of Paul's fears coming home to finding a full-grown chicken in the house flying around.

He did say that it would be much easier for him to be ok with everything if we skipped the chick stage and went straight to point of lay pullets, or even just the outside being in a coop part. And to not due that, and to also keep them in my office ... seems like pushing the limits too much with him.

The garage is supposed to be fixed Wednesday morning (tomorrow), so I could reasonable just wait until the garage door is able to be properly closed so it'll heat up in there more, but I'm afraid the chicks'll be gone by then. When I called the feed store, they had four or five Silkie Bantams left and I want two of them. So if I wait a couple more days, they could be gone.

It's times like these that I just need to stop freaking and panicing, take a deep breath, and remember that if they are gone by the time I get there -- it wasn't meant to be.

So the Silkies are there now (at the feed store), but the Buff Orpingtons won't be there for two weeks (5-20-09). I have been informed of the risk of putting different aged chicks together. The older ones might kill the younger ones, but I'm REAAALLLY hoping that two weeks won't make the difference and I won't have dead chicks on my hands.

The other issue is the Silkies aren't sexed. And since we can't have roosters in the city limits, we have to get rid of them and they won't be identifiable for three or four months! I can see getting pretty attached to them by then. :(

Well, the kitchen's clean and all of the pots and pans are washed and draining. I think I'll put away my clean clothes and straighten up the floor in my office and make room for a big chick box. :D I'll put them in the corner and keep the door shut. Maybe Paul won't even know they are here until the garage is fixed and I transfer them out there. (heeheehee)

UPDATE: They're here! I've got them in the garage with the light on, an oil heater on max high next to a plastic rubbermaid tote that they are in. They've got their heat lamp on and I played around it until I got it down to 89 degrees in there (they are a week old tomorrow and was told the first week it is 95 degrees and second week it is 90.)

I got three, knowing that we'd have to get rid of some (hopefully not all). The way Aubrey has wrapped her head around the giving away the chickie thing is this: we are fostering them. When they are four months old, we can adopt the girl chicks and name them. Right now they are "chick chick." But in four months (or whenever we can sex them), we'll have a naming and adoption ceremony after we get rid of the rooster(s).

Plus, on May 20th I get to come and pick up two Buff Orpington chicks. And hope they don't get eaten by the Silkies. Silkies make great mamas and have even been known to foster ducklings before, so hopefully they will just welcome the Buffs in. Plus the Silkies are bantam; the Buff Orpingtons are full size. Maybe the newborn Buffs will look the same size as the three week old Silkies.