April 23, 2013

• Another Special Delivery

  Oi, my vey… I am destined to be up with the dawn every morning, this week, I swear it.  ((I don’t get up until 8…ish.  If I can help it.  I don’t believe the good Lord wanted us up before daylight, or He wouldn’t have made it DARK, hello.  And FYI, it was a red sky, this morning, so ‘sailors take warning’… er, it’s going to rain today.))  It was the first time in… a LONG time that I’ve watched a sunrise.  Pretty, but I’m not sure it’s worth it.

  Anyhow, yesterday my brother called at the crack of a.m. (I bolted out of bed for the phone, thinking Brian had car trouble on the way to work, r’something)… with the good news about our nephew’s birth!  And then this morning, the phone rang at the crack of a.m, a-GaiN…  6:19am, to be exact.  And I woke up (Brian was in the shower), and ran for the phone, again – thinking, “oh, no, something bad’s happened with the baby…!”  After all, who else would call me that early?

  It was the post office.  I didn’t even KNOW the post office was open at 6:19 in the morning, hello.  You’d think with it being gov’mint…  But anyhow, it was really hard to hear the lady over the cheeping that was echoing in their cavernous mail room.  Cheeping.  Our chicks had arrived, and they would like us to come and get them, please… as soon as possible.  ((Probably because they don’t want to be held responsible if something happens to them, and also likely because they were LOUD.))

  So I knock on the bathroom door and tell Brian… and he just laughs.  He thinks it’s HILARIOUS that I’ve been yanked out of my nice, warm bed two mornings in a row.  ((And I good naturedly tell him he doesn’t even want to SAY anything more about it.))  So Brian called in and told them he’ll be a few minutes late, and sent me to the post office, while he set up the garden tub (in our house, the ‘garden’ tub really does get used for some down-home stuff.).  That’s the good thing about Brian’s work – they’re really, really easy-going about life, and if something comes up – they work with you… as long as you work with them when something comes up.

  We’d already cleaned and brought in the stuff we’d need for the chicks: the food tray, waterer, pine shavings, and heat lamp, but I had thought the kids and I would set them up, after breakfast.   Change of plans!  Yeah… and not for the better – I expected to sleep normal hours, and there I was, on the road with a TON of morning traffic (you people are insane to be up and out that early.  It’s inhuman.).  And yes, I used to do it, too, but I grumbled all the way, much like I did this morning.  But maybe there was a bright side.  Pretty sunrise (RAIN A’COMIN!) and I wouldn’t have to juggle five chil’uns and a passel of baby chicks, at the same time.

  I knock on the back door of the post office, and the lady let me in… it’s obvious which package was mine – it’s the only one singing in fifteen-part harmony.  Which is probably why it was so loud – the minimum order for shipping was fifteen.  What I’m going to do with THAT many eggs a day next spring, I don’t know.  Maybe by then WWIII will have started with North Korea and I’ll have an extra bird or five to share with people.  Or maybe we’ll just eat them.  Come fall, that’s EXACTLY what I intend to do with the other breeds in our coop.

  Anyhoo, the thing is, when they ship the chicks, they’re *just* hatched, so they have a 3-day supply of food/water in them to tide them over (from the nutrients of the egg)… and we HAD to get them to food and water.  So it’s not like I should wait to go and get them.  For all I knew, maybe some hadn’t made the trip.  And so maybe it was better that I go get them withOUT the kids, and we take care of any… misfortunates?… before they wake up and feel bad, right?

  Yes, I realize that they sell chicks at the farm stores in Greenville, Cedar Springs, Wayland and Hastings.  But the reason we ordered is because they don’t carry the breed we’re going to, exclusively.  We bought chicks at the farm store more than once, and… they’re sub-par breeds, to our experience.  And after buying eight different store breeds (and incubating some of our own)… I can tell you:  they’re not my Black Langshans. 

  Black Langshans are HUGE birds – when we have them processed, it’s a nice size chicken to roast!.  They keep their tail feathers and sheen, unlike the farm store birds.  They’re more resistant to disease by A LOT.  They’re quieter, milder, and far more beautiful – they’re iridescent, so they’re a gorgeous black/greeen color.  They also have ‘fur’ running down their feet, and covering one of the three toes, so that’s kind of a kewl thing. 

  As for the roosters, they. are. REALLY big, and absolutely beautiful… and sweet as the day is long.  You hear stories about roosters coming after people and clawing the crap out of them with their spurs.  Not so Black Langshans.  My kids pick them up – the ROOSTERS! – and carry them around.  Of course, we keep our roosters separate of the hens – I hear if they’re together, the roosters are protective of their mates.  Separated, though, they’re big babies. 

  And everyone who comes to our homestead are intrigued and impressed with the Black Langshans.  ((I did a little reading on them… they were a favorite with the American Pioneers, too.))  So we’re going to them, exclusively – and I’ll just breed the cocks we have now with the new hens, incubate, and keep it going.

  
  Chicks in a box… and then in the tub.
  (Sorry it’s fuzzy… the setting got bumped, and I didn’t catch it.)

  It’s crazy, all those little birds hopping around in that box.  So funny to see.  And of course you have to add a little sugar to their water (to give them an energy boost… they’ve been two days traveling with no food/water), and you have to take each one out of the box and dip it’s beak into the water, so they know where it is.  I got the honors… and those goofy things fight you, the whole way!

   But now they’re warm and fed and in their new home (for the next few weeks)… it’s a good thing we have two tubs in our house!

  So yeah… and when the kids wake up, this morning, it’ll be like Hanukkah – a special delivery came while they were sleeping!  But aren’t they cute?  And they’re BORN with the fur on their legs.  I didn’t expect that!  I didn’t expect them to be so lemon colored, either – when they grow up, they’re solid black (very Matrix-y… but I digress).  But, OH, the kids are going to love it!
  

  • 8:41 am
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