We didn’t raise chicks early this spring and decided to wait until summer which now makes so much more sense. Usually we get chicks while its still snowing outside and its a challenge to keep them warm even inside but in early summer it is warm everywhere and these chicks have been so happy.
We have added not only 38 chicks to our homestead but also 15 Welsh Harlequin Ducks and 5 Tolouse Geese. The little peeps and quacks are such a pretty sound and I hear that the goslings are close to getting their little honks though I have not heard them myself. Truth be told, chicks are my favorite part of homesteading. Watching the chicks in the brooder is like watching my favorite show and these little peepers are getting more and more interesting as the days go by. There is even one little chick that looks a bit like Liberace with poofy hair on its head and quite a flamboyant attitude. It will be such a treat to see them all grow and develop their own personalities.
Then… just one day after we got the call to come and pick up our box of chicks at the post office, I got a message from a friend whose husband had rescued a wild baby raccoon whose mama had gotten killed by a car. Her husband had come around a corner and saw a group of buzzards fly up off of the road and on second look, saw this little raccoon standing next to his mamas body. My friends husband pulled over and this little raccoon walked right up to him as if to say “please help me”. They brought him over and his first day he was more dead than alive but we nursed him back to health while we tried to figure out a good place to take him for help. Ringo was decided upon by most of the kids. Little Ringo raccoon got to be one of the Farmish bunch for a week before a friend with experience in raising raccoons came to adopt him. So our career as raccoon parents was short lived but I have a feeling we will be talking about him for a lifetime.
Back on the chicken front, I have ordered portable electric fencing to keep our flock in this year. I think Poppa will appreciate them a bit more when there aren’t hoard of chickens and ducks going to the flower beds near the front porch and roosting on rocking chairs. We have been raising fowl since 2006 and he has been very patient for a non-farm boy. It is the least I can do after he has welcomed flock after flock over the years. I am excited to see how it all works and I hope to have good news to report back here.
I love hearing about your life on the farm. So different to my own.