Our much anticipated chickens were due to arrive yesterday morning.. our mail carrier called us with the sad news that all 28 of our baby chickens where dead! Brian and I went to the post office and picked up the box... They where sad looking all lying in a heap with their eyes shut... As we drove home I held the box in my lap as I have so many times before except there was no little "ep ep ep" just the little silent heap of fur. So when we got them home I opened up the box and took another look and picked up each one... some felt less "hard" than others... and although they were not moving at all when I picked them up, I couldn't help but think a few might still be hanging on... there where four that I thought might still be actually alive three seemed to move their mouths a tiny bit when I put the electrolytes in their mouths with a straw... Brian and I nursed them for about 1/2 hour and during that time it looked like only two seemed to be alive sadly the little yellow one was with us for a litle while but didn't make it but "old number 28" as Brian dubbed her did... she is the sole survivor of the harrowing trip cross country and makes the whole thing not quite so sad. Old Number 28 was touch and go for about 4 hours but started eating on her own around dinner time last night... and it pecking around in her new box by the wood stove by the time we went to bed..
Baby Chicks usually make it just fine they are shipped next day and they keep each other warm and they have special travel food for the trip but something happened to these poor little guys ... I suspect they got too cold... so we are trying again next week but this time we are shipping to a different post office (the main hub in Portland) to take out the last long leg of the journey and hoping they all arrive safely...
in the first 1/2 hour not really moving much at all ... 
by early evening : )
7 comments:
Go number 28!
Oh my LORD - Number 28 has earned some serious privilege. I hope she lives a long and comfy life. Poor baby.
So sorry you lost so many of them. Very sad. :-(
I totally agree she will be my extra special chicken and I'm thinking will never go into a pot... she's kind of bonded with me ... if a chicken can bond of course : ) I'll just say ... I was sitting on the couch and I had her out and she hopped right up on me and walked right up to my face and snugled into my neck it was the cutest thing EVER... maybe it was just warm but very cute none the less : )
humm I wonder who her napa friends are.. a mystery
Oh dear. How sad. I'm glad you have the one! And i'm glad she won't go into a pot. Yikes. We used to raise chickens when i was a kid and we always named them things like "pizza" so that when we were eating them, we would say "Tonight we're having pizza, yum". Kind of creepy!
I love the blog!!!
Jaye
Even if Old #28 is a he there's place for him here : )
Once, when I was a kid, a friend of mine's mother told us to go out and kill this chicken that was sick. My friend had a couple of sets of bows and arrows and we went at it pretty hard on this bird. The sucker was pretty resilient as she kept strutting around even with two arrows sticking out of it. It was at this time that the mother of my friend (who was hot by the way) came out and told us we were killing the wrong chicken. Ooops! I'm pulling for Ole 28 but if you need an archer, I'm your man.
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