The babies came home last night…

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I established them in an at least nominally rat-free room in Landlady’s barn that never gets too chilly on summer nights, since I can’t really run a heat lamp for them. Checked on them first thing this morning, and all the Rhode Island Red chicks were fine…

This hatchery makes a practice of throwing in one ringer, usually male, apparently just for laughs. As far as Landlady could tell this one’s a Blue Cochin. Landlady gave it the interim name of Ralphie and has high hopes for it because if it lives and is male then she can name it Chief Wiggum*…
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…unfortunately the one that wasn’t doing well was little Ralphie. His eyes were all gummed up and he seemed really sluggish. So I stuck him in my camera bag and brought him down to the house. Landlady worked the crusts off with Q-tips of warm water, and we set him up a quarantine bed with an incandescent bulb for heat.
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And we’ll just have to see how it goes with him. But the hens-to-be are off to a good start!


*Because he’ll be fat and clumsy and blue. Yeah, continuing the tradition of naming cock birds and certain hens after Simpsons characters. Hey, everybody’s got his kink, right?

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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7 Responses to The babies came home last night…

  1. MJR says:

    You do know Joel it’s always easier on the mind not to name them right? Naming them means they become your pets, sooner then you think your pets become your friends and it’s hard to take a hatchet to a friend.

  2. Judy says:

    MJR – Or maybe not…depends on your mental health labels.

  3. Joel says:

    MJR, the rank and file hens are not named. Certainly if we get a run of meat birds we wouldn’t name them.

    On the other hand I have not found it a problem to execute, slaughter and eat named birds. In fact in my own personal experience the ones that get names are the ones that draw attention to themselves through their behavior, and that rarely turns out to be a good thing for the bird. Overall, a named bird is more likely to be an enemy than a friend.

  4. coloradohermit says:

    Speaking of named birds, how is Addie(Addled something?) who likes you, doing?

  5. Joel says:

    About the same. If I sit down on a straw bale, she climbs into my lap and is apparently prepared to sit there forever. No eggs, of course.

    Adie is short for ‘arrested development.’ 🙁 But I’m planning to overlook her during the cull.

  6. Robert says:

    Adie is lucky that even desert hermits need a pet to give them affection or whatever it is that poses as affection with a creature whose brain is the size of a pea. Take the cat, for example, that insists, insists, I tell you, that he must be served water with ice cubes in it. Stupid thing tried to climb into the freezer again. Out of the three, he’s my favorite…

  7. Joat says:

    I had no issue killing our two named roosters. Their names were Randy and Asshole, Randy was a bit too aggressive with the hens, and the reason for the others name should be obvious.

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