May 22, 2013
A major snafu with our dog and chicks this weekend resulted in a funeral for two and some crying children. I won’t go into the feather flying details, but let’s just say, it wasn’t pretty. My sweet, lovable labradoodle, Penny, who is so damn subservient and such a lady is a freaking hunter like no other.
I told you she killed a goldfish in our fountain, didn’t I? My husband called me at a birthday party I was at with my girls and delivered the news. I gave into a moment of desperation and chose to forgo the mommy teaching moment.
Loading my sobbing girls into the car, still with cupcake frosting on their lips as they cried, we went directly to Island Seed and Feed for new chicks. Admittedly, not my finest parenting work, but I think I was just as traumatized as my kids.
It’s just lucky we didn’t end up with a baby turkey, too. Do you know how cute and friendly they are? The good thing about this “substitution team” is that we are more confident they are hens. My daughter’s class had raised the other chicks in incubators and we were pretty sure at least one of the two, if not both, were roosters.
Since then, I’ve come to find out that if you buy baby chicks at a farm that sells them from a hatchery, the chicks have been sexed. This isn’t a 100% fail proof process; so don’t leave any roosters at my front door. Basically, some person on an assembly line of chickens takes a “look-see” and they separate the hens and the roosters. If you’ve ever tried to inspect a chick you know this must take some talent.
We are still sad over here, but through this process we have a much-improved appreciation for nature and animal instinct. We are creating a safer home for our new girls by modifying our coop and making it more Penny-proof. I’ll keep you posted about the progress and results. And to add to the to do list, I’m training the dog with a new citronella collar. Needless to say, this wasn’t part of my chicken coop fantasies.
We still love you.
