Down to Six

It has been a tough weekend to be a chicken farmer. I came home with 12 chicks on Friday, and we are down to six.

I should note that this is not our first rodeo; the husband and I have had chickens for more than 15 years and we know how to care for baby chicks. We used the exact same setup this year that we have used every year.

The chicks seemed fine when I brought them home on Friday. I popped out to the garage several times during the day to check on them, counting each time to make sure we still had 12. The husband came home for dinner and I left for a meeting. When I returned a few hours later, I looked in on the chicks—and only counted 10. The husband had gone out to check on them while I was gone and found two dead ones.

I had another meeting at church all day Saturday. Before I left, I called the farm store. They were not expecting a shipment of chicks that day, so they offered us a refund on the two dead ones. Their policy is to offer replacements or refund on any chicks that die within 24 hours.

Mid-morning, I texted the husband to ask how the chicks were doing and he texted back, “Nine.”

Yesterday morning, I cooked breakfast while he went out to check on them. He came back and said two more had died.

And when I got home from church, I found another one languishing. It died later in the afternoon.

I just checked on the six that are left and they all seem to be doing fine.

The husband and I talked about trying to get more, but at the rate people are losing chicks this year, there doesn’t seem to be much point. I talked to our UPS driver last week—he and his family have almost as many chickens as we do—and he expressed frustration, too. He got chicks in March and half of them died within the first week.

It is what it is. We chalk this up to circumstances beyond our control and go forward from here.

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I spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon transplanting tomatoes. I am pleased with how things are growing out there. Planting squash and cucumbers is on the list for later this week.

My focus for the past five days has been on church stuff. We had an outside consultant come in to help us with some visioning and identity work related to our pastor search. The process was worthwhile, but I was in charge of much of the planning and I’m a bit worn out. I need a few hours this morning to reorganize and get my feet back under me.