one hundred and fifty chicks first day at school

what an amazing thing.  one hundred and fifty peeping little puffs of feather—all in  a box—and waiting at the post office like an amazon shipment.  much like everything else on the farm, things that sound simple inevitably turn into complex challenges.  after debating back and forth on what sort of structure to build to house the baby chicks, we decided to go with one similar to what we saw over at darby farms earlier in the week.

we spent two days clearing out a cluttered green house, building a wall, enclosing the place with chicken wire, filling it with hay and bedding, and rigging up a lighting system.

our biggest concern, after containing the chicks in a dry, warm environment, is to prevent predators from snacking their way through our flock.  rats, our biggest concern, can enter without much effort and pick off baby chicks—one by one—without much detection.

the video below is an overview of the two days leading up to our chicks arrival, as well as their pickup at the post office, their arrival at the farm, and their first feed and water.