Three weeks ago, we
ordered 15 Dark
Cornish chicks from
Natures Hatchery, to be shipped the next week.  Then waited, and
waited, and waited.  I called the post office — any
chicks?  “Nope,” our nice postmistress said.  “Have you tried
calling the hatchery?”



So I called the
hatchery, got voice mail, left a message.  Waited a few more
days.  Still nothing.  So I emailed the hatchery. 
Nothing.  Called the hatchery again.  Nothing.  By now,
it had been two and a half weeks since I ordered our chicks, and a week
and a half since they were supposed to ship.  I finally gave up,
left the hatchery a message canceling my order, and looked elsewhere.



Unfortunately, everyone
else was ordering their chicks while I sat around trusting Natures
Hatchery to come through.  My new choices were to order all male
Dark Cornish to be shipped soon, or wait over a month to get some
females.  We chose the former route so that our forest
pasture experiment
can start rolling along, and will order some hens to round out our
flock in the summer if the breed seems to fit the bill.  (Or maybe
we’ll get lucky and there’ll be some mis-sexed birds in our first
flock.)



Just thought I’d let you
know why we haven’t posted any chick pictures yet — and to warn you
off Natures Hatchery.  By the time you read this, our new chicks
should be in the mail!  Our brooder and chicken waterers are ready for them.

I’ve been enjoying
working through my thoughts on homemade chicken
feed, chicken
pasturing systems,
and chicken
varieties over the
last few weeks.  But in the process, I’ve let a few things
slide.  So, this week I’m going to post all of those backlogged
entries that didn’t make the cut in previous weeks.



First of all, I want to
welcome my mom to the Avian Aqua Miser team!  Mom needed a job and
we needed some help, so it’s a perfect match.  She’s been hard at
work burning CDs and preparing do it yourself kits, just in time for
the chick season to get underway.  She was also responsible for
the blog post a couple of weeks ago about wild
chickens in suburbia. 
Thanks, Mom!



In other news, Mark is
engrossed in another chicken-related invention.  I think that his
new invention is every bit as exciting as the Avian Aqua Miser.  What
is it?  Well, I’ve promised not to tell until he works all of the
kinks out.  Stay tuned!