Basement chickens

The one who overthinks her chickens came up with a solution to last week's expanding basement chicken population: Yesterday, I gave Biele Mama and the 2 chicks that she hatched to Karen, our goat lady friend. They will be very happy in their new large warm calf hutch in the sun with plenty of room to roam. By the time it starts getting really cold, the chicks should have all of their adult feathers, and in the meantime Biele is keeping them warm underneath her. She was definitely not happy with her transport, but she calmed down once I added her chicks in a box nearby and they could chat with each other during the 15-minute ride.

On Tuesday, while I was in work, The Husband watched a 6th chick hatch from an egg I had taken from Biele. She had abandoned the 9 eggs left with her, so I put them in the crate with the 5 chicks under the heat lamp, not expecting any more to hatch. Unfortunately, 1 of the larger chicks in the crate decided it was his/her duty to beat up the newly hatched one.

Rather than make a third chicken crate in the basement, I contacted my 2 goat lady friends on Wednesday. I didn't expect them both to say yes, but that created the perfect solution to my problem. Biele and her 2 went to Karen, and the remaining eggs, the newest chick, and 1 of the smaller younger ones went to June. She is a pre-school teacher who has hatched chicks before in her classroom. She was happy to have these little ones, especially because she had just been reading books about chickens to the kids.

Perfect timing!

So now we are left with a more manageable 4 chicks in the basement.All are starting to feather out. I know they are all half Buff Orpington (our roo) and I think all came from white eggs which would mean half Brown Leghorn, but the one in the front doesn't have any of the brown feathers like the others. She might have come from one of the different eggs I gave to Elmer. We may never know her breed, but we don't really care.

I will save my latest appliance rant for next week, after I find out how much it will cost to repair my 3YO refrigerator...my third refrigerator in the 10 years we have been in this house. I can add GE to my list of brands that can't be trusted.