In February, (I think), we placed our order with Murray McMurray Hatchery. You gotta order 15 chickens for the smallest box. So we got brave and thought we would try our hand at doing some meat chickens, too.
On May 28th we got a call from the Greenville PostOffice that our baby chicks had arrived!! Moses and Heber were thrilled! I was scared to death of how this was going to go. I told myself over and over again that I was going to have to let the boys learn and be involved. My first brave move: I let Moses carry the box of baby chicks to the van and on the way home!! AGGHH!! Next, after I opened the box, I let them each choose which chicken they were going to claim and even hold the chicks.. AGGHHHH!!!
Moses picked a darling grey and yellow one and Heber snagged a black one with a yellow spot on her head. They called it her "cheese head." They named them Chicky choo, and Lightning. I got the golden one, Orpah. Zakary was away on Military Training, but he picked the blackest one and called her Blacky Boo Boo.. Gretel was assigned a red one and I named her Winnie. The yellow one was named after our favorite chicken in Ogden, Yella. And the other black one had a white bottom, so she was named Sparkled. Yes, Sparkled.
The meat chicks were given the larger brooder out in the garage and the laying chicks only lasted one minute in the garage. Moses put an end to that right off. No way was his baby going to sleep in the garage. Moses was SO loving and caring. He asked me to let him always feed them and he wanted to make sure that they were warm.. the first night he struggled because I wouldn't put a blanket over them. He LOVED those babies! It came at a perfect time for him. He was asking me to protect his pet worms and he was leaving them out all around.
We did have one sad accident. We had our chicks for one week, I took the babies outside so I could clean out their brooder. Moses and Heber were watching the chicks play. I came back around the house with new clean bedding, and the boys were hiding the chicks under frisbees. I ran to uncover them and one baby chick had been crushed. She was still breathing, but badly hurt. It was Chicky Choo. Moses was devastated. I put her in his hands and told him to tell her all that he loved about her. I finished up cleaning and put the other chicks away. We put Chicky Choo in a small box where she later died. We literally watched her take her last breath! Moses cried and cried. I cried and cried! It was terrible. I called several hatcheries to get a replacement, but no one would sell me a single chick.
My dad arrived that night, he tried getting a replacement, too. But in the end, we buried Chicky Choo and I allowed Moses to pick a new chick. He chose Gretel's red one, and changed her name to Chicky Choo Number 2. He loved on that baby chick, perhaps a little less, but he had learned a hard lesson.
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