New chicklets

They come in the mail. 
I didn't know that.
You tell them what kind you want and you pay them.  Then the next time a bunch of those kind of chickens hatch the shippers quickly jam them into a box with a piece of apple and some straw, write 'FRAGILE - BABY CHICKENS' on the box and ship them overland regular delivery.  The chicks are so fresh when you get them that you have to teach them how to drink water and eat.

Living in a small town - well, we don't really live in a small town, we live near one - Living near a small town you get known by the locals.  We're known by our local postperson .

(Nowadays you say so-and-so-PERSON instead of so-and-so-MAN.  Otherwise the person gets offended.  Of course, if the so-and-so person is a man he doesn't get offended but if the so-and-so person is a woman or a woman wannabe then you must say so-and-so-PERSON).

Our local postperson knows us and knows our damnit dogs and our chickens.  She knew I was expecting a chicklet shipment so I was called at 05:30 that morning.  I rushed into town first thing that day and got the chicks.  Me and my neighbor, Sharon, each got 6 chicks.  We shoulda got 20.  Chickens are fragile.  Sharon kept them in her husband's work shed where she and Alan (husband) kept close and careful watch over them for a few weeks.  Right away two of them died.  They couldn't handle the shipment and came out of the box sorta drunk acting.  Within hours they were both gone.  One of hers died (they're black and white somethings) and one of mine died (mine are Rhode Island Reds). 

So they stayed in nice containers in the work shed and Sharon gradually introduced them to the outside world by taking them out in the yard in a dog crate.  She'd leave them for longer and longer times so that they could get a look at the real world.  Last Thursday we decided it was time to move them out for good.  We can't just put them in with the existing adult chickens because the adults would kill them.  We have to wait until the babies are big enough to protect themselves before they can move in with the rest of the chicks.

During this time that we've been watching them grow, I've thrown together some junk wood and other things and I've built a rude little A-frame coop for my 5 Rhode Island chicklets.  I put the coop into a dog pen that we had.  So the chickies could safely stay in the dog pen (covered with chicken wire to keep the hawks, eagles and owls out).  And if they got scared or tired they could go into the newly built chicken coop.  The coop has a roost and lots of straw.  Alan used to build houses and he's an engineer.  He makes a much nicer chicken coop than I.  He has built a really fine log cabin type structure.  They'll move their five chicklets out to that soon.  They'll keep their coop and chickens down the hill some where they live.  My chicks are out here at the house near the garden. 

The chicks seemed to realy love the new digs.  I had not cut the grass in the dog pen all this year so the chicklets have lots of grass and weed growth and bugs to peck at.  They have little roosting opportunities around the outside and they have a comfy safe seeming place inside.  They have a nice new home and seemed to enjoy it. 

So last night I went out to check on them.
Four of the chicklets were up against the corner of the dog pen climbing all over each other and screaming and crying at the top of their tiny little lungs.  They were trying to get out.  They were freaked out.  I looked further and saw why. 

There was a black rat snake in the dog pen.  It was about 3 or 4 feet long.  It was dining.  On one of my baby chickens.  It nearly had her swallowed and she was ghastly looking, all saliva-ed up with snake spit and streamlined into a perfect for swallowing afternoon meal.   I stepped on the snake to hold him down and then grabbed him by the neck.  Normally when I catch a non-poisonous snake I just take it down to the pond, which is a good place for a snake to live, and let them go.  I recognize that non toxic snakes are good for the environment and I accept that they have a right to live too just like me.  So I usually let them go.  Now if it's a rattler or a copperhead then I act differently but we don't get rattlers hardly at all and the copperheads aren't too common.  This snake though, this snake met a different fate.  I apologized to him.  Explained to him that now he knows where the chicklets live, there's no guarantee that he wont return.  So I laid him down and amputated his head.  It rolled and twisted and curled and looked creepy for a while.  

I took the chick body and the snake body and the head with no body and buried it all in the pasture. 

The chicklets are now scared to death.  I can't blame them.  Hope they don't break out and run away.  Hope they live long enough to grow large enough to deter the snakes.  Hope I get to raise at least some of these chickeys.