A Box of Chicks and a Bag of 'Bugs

Everywhere on the farm, there are signs that spring is rapidly approaching. The taps on the maple trees are drying up. The days are getting longer. The greenhouses are exploding with growth. The shipments of chicks have started arriving in the mail.

On Thursday, we got word that a box of 100 chicks was waiting for us at the post office. I’m guessing that postal workers don’t handle much cargo this cute.

The thought of chicks being sent through the mail seems a little strange at first, but most farms these days (both organic and conventional) buy their chicks from a hatchery. It’s incredibly easy: you choose the breeds you are looking for, the number of chicks you want, and, for a small fee, you can select the sex of the birds that you want sent to you as well.

Since these chickens will be used as egg layers, paying the fee makes sense. A flock of mostly hens means more eggs for the farm. It also means the hens can lay their eggs in peace. If you’ve ever seen chickens mate, you can understand the problems that would arise in a flock with too many roosters.

After the chicks made it home from the post office, they were taken straight to the brooding room which was already nice and toasty in anticipation of their arrival. We took them out of the box one by one, dipped their beaks into the waterer so they would know where to get a drink, and stood back to watch the chicks explore their new home for awhile.

A box of chicks wasn’t the only interesting package to arrive in the mail this week. We also received a bag full of ladybugs for the greenhouses that one of the farmers ordered to take care of a few aphids that were spotted last week. While ladybugs might not be as cute and fluffy as the chicks, it still feels pretty wonderful to walk around the greenhouse, sprinkling them onto the beds, knowing that pests are being taken care of without having to pick up a spray bottle filled with something scary.