Chicks: Pets or Produce?

A daughter and her husband brought over three fluffy little two day old chicks in a cardboard box last night. They are little eating machines and after the eating and drinking they fall asleep on their feet. I wrap them into a hand towel and put a lid on them until the next eating and drinking session. The difference between houseplants and three baby chicks is that the houseplants can go for a week at a time without a glance. Of course they are not nearly so cute...or so noisy. It would be nice to have a couple of egg layers but I could have aggressive roosters on my hands here. I had to promise not to have roosters for dinner and instead get them to a farm; where we all know what happens to them. But it won't be me chopping heads off and scalding them in boiling water.

The whole chick bit is that this daughter is the Activities Director for a local nursing home and the Douglas County Extension Service provides eggs and incubators for schools, 4H clubs, and nursing homes, obviously, and will collect the whole business when the hatching is over unless they provide places for the chickens.

The worst case scenero is that they hop into the pool and drown; the best, that they are all pullets and the eggs will be home grown, free range and start in December. Free range means eating bugs in backyard flower pots. Grandmothers, granddaughters, and chicks have happened in this family for about 68 years, but it was the grandmothers that were doing the giving not the receiving. Change is good, but then this is day one. An egg layer can do double duty as a pet and as a provider.