YESTERDAY I took a few hours off from the farm to go and have lunch with a friend. I don’t do this often as you know and I never know what I am going to be dealing with on my return. I left the Poppy’s big door open to the weather so she did not get stir crazy, put on clean clothes and left the farm. 
But all was well. On my return, the worst Poppy had done was upend her water all over her courtyard. But it was warmer, the babies did not mind getting wet feet. Inside the barn was still dry and their creep was still warm and cosy.
To my relief, they were just as shiny and fat and funny when I got home as when i left. Even fatter probably – they grow very fast.
The wind has started to blow which is a good sign. We have three days of warm weather ahead of us before we drop back down into the cold. And I am going to make the most of it. Once the chicks come it will be busy again for a while.
I called to discuss the ducklings and the cold weather with Murray McMurray the hatchery and the woman seemed unperturbed about them travelling in next weeks cold. (As long as the Post Office does as it should, she said, deftly passing the buck). She did ask me if I wanted to reschedule but that would result in a hatch of ducklings that they may not be able to resell. And we all know what happens to chicks that do not sell. I know we don’t want to think about it but what do you think happens to all those rooster chicks from a hatch when we only order the females as layers. Unless we are vegans we are all part of that cycle. They do their best to place the extra chicks – the other hatchery I buy from is Ideal Poultry and I have had them call me on occasion trying to place a cancelled hatch. They try not to have to euthanise but the truth is not everything they hatch sells, the males in the laying world do not have the same demand, and my cancelling would add to that problem. My chicks are already started and I don’t think it is ethical for me to simply change my mind because of the weather. I have decided to let the chicks and ducklings be sent out in the post and we will hope for the best.
For the record both my orders are for female birds.
At the very least by next week we will be back above freezing (I hope) when they are travelling. And I will set up nice warm areas for the chicks to grow in when they make it through.
I hope I have not ruined your morning – but there is one thing you know from reading this blog and that is that we do not flinch from the truth here. And in the Lounge of Comments everyone has a space to discuss these issues without raised voices or recriminations. So do feel free to join the discussion.
There are times in life when the knowledge of something sad or unfair is enough. We face it and know it and let that knowledge be. Some things are unchangeable. Some things are sad. Some things stink. But there you are. Own it. We need to use the pragmatic sides of our brains and deal with it. Roosters do not lay eggs, for instance. So they are less valuable. That is just how it is. Some things we must accept if we are to keep eating omelettes.
I do hope you find some loveliness in your day.
Love celi
WEATHER:
Thursday 04/12 0% / 0 in
A mix of clouds and sun. Gusty winds diminishing during the afternoon. High 74F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph.
Thursday Night 04/12 10% / 0 in
Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
Sun
6:18 am 7:29 pm
Moon
Waning Crescent, 14% visible 4:50 am 4:01 pm
The Kitchen's Garden 
62 responses to “LET’S SEE WHAT WE’VE GOT”
Those little pigs are quite brave (nosey) already.
I took care of some male birds for a friends a few years ago, who kept chicken in their back garden and they were becoming noisy. They were about 6 months old, so not huge, but they’d had a diet of organic food and whatever they could peck from the soil – they were the best tasting chicken I’ve ever eaten!
I think I remember that – yes younger the better i think – did you make a stew? c
I roasted the first one and it was amazing – extremely tender. I did a coq au vin with one of the others.
Cute little piglets 🙂
They are a very cute litter. c
I just read an interesting book- The Ethical Carnivore: My Year of Killing to Eat, by Louise Gray. She decides to eat only meat she kills herself for one year, and then she goes through the process of everything from cattle to crickets. Some hunting, some visiting of abattoirs, etc. She is British so it’s slightly different than here, but she was good about mentioning US practices. Anyway – worth a read – and even though I am very conscious of our meat-eating decisions, and buy only ethically-raised-and-butchered meat, it still made me think more deeply about how much we should be eating. It also made me wonder what I would eat if I had to actually kill it and dress it.
Anyway. Food for thought.
Not the same, but CA is having a longish winter too – cold this morning. By cold I mean low 40’s. 🙂 Tomatoes and peppers are waiting patiently in the greenhouse.
I agree that we all eat TOO MUCH of everything – we have such plenty.. c
We raised straight run Cornish Rock chickens for years~ butchered the males first as they reached size first, then the females. That way we weren’t overwhelmed with sooo many chickens to butcher all at once. They were free ranged and were very lively. And delicious!
Yes – it is really worth it.. I will only eat my own chicken. c
Reading this post brings back memories of growing up on the farm. My parents always got chicks in the Spring. White chickens, no idea the breed, white leghorns maybe. When the roosters reached a certain size we had meals of the tastiest fried chicken and some would be butchered and canned (we did not have electricity till I was 12 or so). I plucked a lot of chickens and learned to cut them up like a pro. SO much better than what you find on supermarket shelves these days.
The old codger raised and ate Leghorns too – mine are getting to a good age now and are still laying great big while eggs.
Since this is a place where stark reality is accepted: I live in SD and we are about to have a huge winter storm with 5 to 14 inches of snow across the state and howling blizzard winds. Needless to say, the cattle herds are full of the tiniest new calves, and I was wondering last night (storm starts tonight) how many will die. It’s sad, but it is a reality of ranching that the weather can create a cruel environment for the newborns. Even the adults will not be safe since they apparently drift in front of the wind and can end up against the fences and then suffocate.
Oh dear- that is a worry. We try our best to time these things but the weather has other ideas. Good luck
Out there.
We can only educate ourselves and then do our best (each of us uniquely) to be responsible. Thank you for the many things I learn from this site – the blog & comments. When I read a few days ago about the loss of a piglet it was hard to imagine a head so large or heavy that the baby would get “caught” under it and not be able to wiggle free. I can kind of see that in today’s photos.
Her head is VERY heavy. An aggressive pig with hit you with the side of her head and she can pack a wallop!
YAY! Yesterday must have been ‘National Lunch With A Friend’ day!! We went out for Persian food – kabobs and one of their delicious salads! Hope you had as much fun as we did! Came home to the mountains to a horrendous wind/rain storm! Made berrocks and slaw for dinner in our snuggly house. HA! Mr. Flowers looks to be on the wooing path for the beautiful round peahen! Probably out to woo any one of the girls of the opposite sex in his breed of bird! Have a wonderful day, Miss C.!
He is quite the show off – I am glad you have a lovely lunch – so did I – it is a rare occurrence for me so I am always thankful
Even though I grew up spending a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm there is so much I have learned from reading your blog. I never even thought about what happened to male chicks, so thank you for the reality check. Those darling piglets are just about the size of Poppy’s snout! xx
Ah, roosters. I woke up Too Early this morning, and chickens were one of the things going through my head. I have a hen who goes unstoppably broody each spring, and a friend who might be looking to start a new flock this summer. So it could be a perfect scenario — let my hen hatch out a new flock for her. But even if it’s only 50/50 male/female, that’s a problem. I’d be more than happy to feed a bachelor flock in return for bug-eating, IF they wouldn’t harass my hens. So then I think of our neighbor who dreams of having his own butcher shop and would no doubt put extra roosters to good use on his table. But while I completely respect what you do, there’s a reason *I* haven’t gotten into animal husbandry… It’s a pickle.
There’s a doctor I listen to once in a while who was a vegan for about 23 years. One day she could not get out of bed. She started eating bacon, liver, etc…and her energy returned. She also references the hard core vegans and vegetarians of the 60s and 70s, pointing out how the ones who stuck to their strict diets are dead and the ones who went back to eating animal products once in a while are still alive.
Reality is we need a variety of foods to stay healthy.
When I picked out my ducks myself, before I grabbed them and stuck them in the store box, I said I want two females and one male, and that’s what I got! It has worked out great. I have often wondered what the point in having a drake was because, like you say, they don’t lay eggs. But after a year of watching my backyard ducks it is clear to me the males do serve a purpose. My drake is the protector of his girls. He keeps an eye on them, the sky and everything that’s going on around them so they can eat freely and forage without constantly having to look out for themselves. He warns them with his raspy quack when they need to pay attention and he generally keeps them herded together at all times. When one of them is scared or flips out over something, he comes to their rescue.
All this to say, I realize your goal is egg production, but if you do end up with a wrongly sexed duckling, don’t despair. Your drake will certainly have a purpose and will be in heaven with all those girls to flirt with. And he’ll come in very handy if you ever decide to hatch your own ducklings.