Rejection

Day 26 of 365

It has been the longest day I have had in a long time, so I will have to be very brief. Sadly, it did not work out with Kate and the baby chicks. It wasn’t as if she rejected them all the way. It was just like things just didn’t work out. We did everything right. Last night, it seemed like things were going very well. She accepted them at first, but then, this morning, two of the babies kept wanting to get out from under her to eat and drink. But Kate’s instinct was to keep them locked down under her, which is what a mother hen should do for newly-hatched chicks.

So she was confused. When the babies would head to get the food, this would upset her. And then when they would try to go back under her, she balked. One little gray one, was the worst. He or she just could not comply with Kate’s wishes, and after the third time of that little one standing in the corner alone crying and me putting that baby right back, Kate had had enough and started to peck it pretty hard. There was crying for sure. Just to be safe, I pulled all the babies.

I had a bad feeling when I saw the babies were pretty mobile and a little independent, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Truly, Kate did the best she could. She’s a first-time mama, and I think her inexperience added to the confusion.

Honestly, I think it’s all for the best anyway. I will write more tomorrow, but my kiddo has been having a tough time. He has agreed to raise the baby chicks with me, and I think it’s going to be good for his soul. I think it already is. More soon on that. I have a great little story.

I just had to share briefly about what happened with poor Kate. After all of this happening this morning, my already-busy day got way busier because we had to set up the brooder for the babies. And I had to drive to Tractor Supply to get shavings for the brood box. It’s an hour or so round trip just for that. That’s definitely the thing about life on the farm. Sometimes, things go awry, plans fail, and you just have to adjust, adjust, adjust.

The babies will stay in the house for the first couple of weeks, and it’s kind of nice to have them close. But after a day of epic work on this farm for a wide variety of reasons, I am beat. I will have to write more about those reasons in the coming days. It’s been an adventure around here! Now, I just have to figure out what to do for poor little Kate. Hopefully, my chicken-lady connections can help me figure this out.