I am on stand by for the chick delivery. The chicks and baby turkeys (poults) and ducklings were despatched yesterday. They come by mail. Nine times out of ten they are just fine. But I always worry.
The highs are still in the late eighties which is seriously pleasant weather. The chicks should be neither too hot nor too cold as long as they are all in one box. We will see.
I have everything ready. The post mistress will call me when they arrive and Boo and I will drive over to collect them from our little country post office.
They almost never arrive in one day but I am ready for the call.
In the meantime let’s look at the dessert crops!!
Apple crumble. 😃
Cherry pie. 🤭
The apples will do particularly well this year I think. They have been well fertilized with the straw from the chickens last fall. So I expect great things.
This is the first season of cherries from the new trees. They are dessert cherries not eating ones. Small and sour. They will need lots of sugar!
A portion of the hay has been cut. Then the weather person put rain back into the forecast so we will wait another couple of days before cutting the rest. For a number of reasons I am hoping to spread the hay making out so it does not all need to be thrown up on the same day. Fifty at a time is fine with me.
R and I will begin to organize the barn today so we have a space for new hay.
That is if the new chicks do not arrive and use up all our time! Settling chicks takes a while. Every chick has to be shown where the water is and encouraged to have a drink.
Here is the order. This hatchery allowed me to order smaller numbers plus choose ‘hatchery choice’, so they could pop in chicks that were extra to other orders.
I did order heirloom chicks poults and ducklings but I pretty much have no idea what is going to arrive! So we will have to guess at the breeds. The turkeys are going to be fun.
The turkeys will be raised with the chicks so the chickens can teach them how to eat and drink. Without their mothers, turkeys are a bit slow to catch on.
These chicks cruise the whole back yard being trained by their mother to forage. They follow her everywhere she leads them.
She still has quite a big family and is staying under the tree canopy so the hawks don’t see her.
Have a gorgeous day.
Celi
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The Kitchen's Garden 
12 responses to “On Stand By for Chicks”
Hope all the chicks arrive safely and in good health!! Here in Albuquerque it’s supposed to be 98 tomorrow. Spent the past month scrounging for stuff to make shade structures for my garden, something I’ve never had to do.Enjoy your day!!
98 is getting warm!
I can remember my dad getting furious about his chick delivery. There’s a UK rule about travel time for animals, so they took the chicks off the train and stuck them in a station sorting office overnight, then put them back on a train the next day. He was cross about them being crated for an unnecessarily long time and they had no additional food or water. The sender was unaware that they would be locked up overnight. I can understand why you’d feel anxious.
I imagine you could add some of those cherries to vodka or schnapps to flavour it. It might taste a bit like Kirsch.
I love chick arrival days! There is a relative level of excitement in the air just like when a human baby is arriving 🙂 I think this delivery should encourage folks to become Tenners as we are going to get the best views in the coming weeks of this new family group.
Yes! TKG comes out in the evening so you get to see really current video!
The farmy gets more exciting and busy everyday. Hope Quacker eventually finds some friends amongst the new arrivals. Lovely weather you are enjoying, Summer just won’t get going in the UK!
I remember going along on chick deliveries with my uncle who had a hatchery. I got to help box the fluffy little chicks, and to unbox them at the farms. One year he had a special order for quail chicks. They are extremely fast ans hard to catch, smaller than chicken chicks and mottled tan and brown. There would be a lot of peeping until the car got moving (it was a big old station wagon), then the chicks would quiet down until we stopped then they would start peeping again. I think every kid should have some kind of experience of farming.
Yes! It must have been amazing – and everyone would have smiled when you arrived!
I just read that Jeremy Clarkson from the Clarkson’s Farm Show, (great show, fun to watch BTW), suggested that young people in trouble should be sent to work on a farm instead of public service. Not a bad idea.
Absolutely wonderful idea. Remember the Cadet?
Hope all of the babies are delivered safely and are in good health.
Such a great time of year! I love the sound the chicks make when they root about. Each morning when I walk our shoreline I listen intently to notice where the Mallards have their broods. They grow so quickly!