Baby chicks

"Grandpa, when you hold a baby chick, you let it sit on one hand and then you put your other hand in front of it so it can't jump off," Jasper told his Grandpa Dave. "And you don't hold it too tight."

                                           photo by Dave Ellison

Dave and I have been talking about buying baby chicks  again for the last few years. We like having chickens running around the barn yard, but we don't like losing them to racoons, weasels, skunks and our very own dog. This spring we've had our grandson Jasper here for five days and our grandsons Kieran and Simon will be up next week for seven. It seems the perfect time to get baby chicks. The boys will learn about baby chicks and Dave and I will have to critter proof the chicken coop so the boys can  experience the chickens.

Jasper and I emptied the coop of everything we'd stored there in place of chickens. Then we forked out the old bedding. Jasper learned how to use a pitch fork and I learned how to avoid the tines on Jasper's fork. Next we rebedded the coop with fresh straw. After nap time, we drove to Detroit Lakes. The chicks were stored in three foot long stock tanks with heat lights hanging overhead. Jasper and I picked out five yellow ones, five brown ones, five speckled one and five black ones. They peeped loudly in a box on the back seat next to Jasper on the way home. Then we took them out to the barn and one by one let them loose under the big metal umbrella shaped brooder. We turned on the heat lamp, filled a waterer, and then  filled a feed trough with chick starter. The chicks immediately began exploring. They dipped their beaks into the water and then tipped their heads back. A little drop of water glistened on the tip of each beak as they swallowed.

One at a time Jasper and I picked up each chick, held it carefully in our hands and felt their fuzzy heads with our cheeks. We looked at their eyes and their beaks. Jasper kissed each one on the top of the head. We all bonded.

When our friends Budd, Kate and Marguerite came to see the lambs today, Marguerite followed Jasper into the barn to see the chicks. As I set a little yellow baby onto her hands, she smiled, and her fingers curled instinctively around the little puff of life just as mine did when I first picked a chick up and as Jasper has learned to do. Marguerite remembered the chicks they had as a child and the chick in her hand brought her joy.

By the time Jasper returns to the farm in a month or so, the chicks will be unrecognizable - almost full grown chickens, but he'll have the memory in his hands and his mind and on his lips of baby chicks and that memory will be with him forever, bringing him joy.