Welcome to the Homestead!

Life on the homestead has been increasingly insane the past few weeks. Between the end of school and being extremely sick, life has been held in one of those weird moments when time seems to both speed up and slow down at the same time.

So of course, in the middle of it all, on probably the busiest day of the week, I got the call from the post office. "Your chickens are here." Well crap... Yes, I knew I ordered them. Yes, I knew they had shipped. No, I was not at all ready for them! Now, let me just say that I really do know what I'm doing. I have welcomed mail order chicks many times. Had the brooder set up, heat source already warming the area, all the food, and water set. But this time they came earlier than I expected, on a Tuesday, the very day of my concert. So of course, the fact that I had planned to take Wednesday off to prep for them, was now a moot point.

Did I cut it too close? Yes! Did I learn my lesson? Maybe.... But the thing about baby chickens is, they can't really just wait around at the post office for you. So off I dashed. Luckily there is a Tractor Supply close to my house that had everything I needed. Next to the post office. If you're new to this idea of mail order chicks, let me assure you that the United States Postal Service has been shipping live chicks for a very long time, and they are (usually) very good with it. I will also say, there's something very fun about picking up a chirping box at the post office that is usually met with smiles and "awwwws." After the post office I dashed home, setup the brooder, dipped some beaks in water, and headed back to work.

Now, two weeks later, I have thriving babies that are growing super fast, and starting to hit the teenage stage where they put on feathers and look pretty rough. Talking with a friend the other day I likened it to the awkward teenage years where many of us sport acne, and mouths full of braces. But it's easy to see how beautiful these girls will be when they're full grown and feathered out.

Welcoming baby poultry to the homestead might just be one of my favorite things. There's something about the fragility of these tiny birds, but also knowing that they are going to grow up and have a purpose (egg layers.) They chatter to each other almost constantly, until they suddenly fall asleep under the warmth of the heating lamp. "Growing into a hen is hard work," as my mother says. They'll peck at anything shiny, such as the nose ring one of them tried to remove from my nose! and they're pretty curious about the world. Well, at least the little part of it that is their brooder.

I know I will have many fun stories to tell about them in the near future, but until then I'm off to do more chicken chores! Enjoy the pictures of the newest employees of Lindsay's Little Homestead!