One chick, two chick, three chick, four!

After waiting for about a month, we finally got our girls! Our initial quest began when Andrew came home and declared he wanted chickens. I agreed because raising and keeping chickens is something I've wanted to do for a long time...

When I was 10 years old, Mom got an incubator and some eggs from our county extension office and let me monitor them in my room. It was the best. I kept the humidity levels just right, and played classic music to the rotating spheres, unaware of how smart they would be thanks to my intervention. Out of 24 eggs, 2 hatched. We had a dud batch. Or they didn't care for Mozart.
One of the chicks had issues and was doomed to certain death. A kindhearted friend rescued it, intending to nurse it back to health. She later reported that the chick died in her hands just days later. The second chick survived and was dubbed "Mr. Peepers". Since my folks didn't plan on chicken farming with one rooster, Mr. Peepers was given to the neighbors I babysat for who had brood of hens. Mr. Peepers was relocated and enjoyed his new life with his lady friends. Alas, it was not to be a long standing enjoyment. A few weeks later when I went to babysit, I was met at the door by several small people with long faces. Before I could say a word, the eldest took it upon himself to tell me (in gruesome detail) that Mr. Peepers had met the end of his life at the hands (urr...paws) of a hungry, prowling coyote. And that was that.

In hopes of redeeming my past experience and desiring the taste and thrill of collecting farm-fresh eggs, and once we got the a-okay from our landlady, hubby and I began our quest. It took 4 weeks, numerous trips to feed stores in town, countless phone calls to said feed stores, multiple disappointments upon seeing "sold out" signs, collecting our chicken farming materials with waning hope of finding chicks, and then a final call to a local chicken farmer who had the age and breeds we wanted!

Yesterday on his lunch break, Andrew came home and we went to get our chicks. They were selling like hotcakes around town, so we knew if the farmer had them, we needed to act quickly. The chicken farmer we'd been in contact with was a sweet old guy with a backyard FULL of chickens. We're talking over a hundred. He showed us to his garage and proceeded to uncover a few boxes filled with baby chicks. We made our selection, he dropped the chosen few into our box, Andrew paid him, we loaded up and took our little brood home. It is now with great pride that I introduce you to the newest members of the family: A Golden Laced Wyandotte, a Rhode Island Red, a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and a Barred Plymouth Rock. *The Barred Rock has an attitude and was uncooperative during the photo shoot. More updates and pictures to come.