santa diaries

Okay, I tried to upload the photo of Santa, but for some mysterious reason it came up blank. But.... last night I had dinner with Mr. Santa and his "partner" at Biga and he told me one of his elves had been getting really depressed, big worry this time of year but much to my surprise quite common. So the sad elf went to a therapist and was told he had low elf esteem!

Santa told me this he really did and he laughed a ho ho ho after.

Poor elf.

So I'm feeling a little full of it today. At 6:15 am the post office called, the chicks had arrived!

I have 108 sweet little one day old chicks! I am so excited. They grow up so fast. One by one I put the chicks in the brooder dipping their beak in the warm molasses water. They were running around the brooder it was so funny. They've been cooped up in a little box for 24 hours so they are ready to fly! I watched all of them take their first drink of water and then I put the food in and they went nuts! Man they eat a lot! So I got 50 black astrolorps (brown eggs, lay great in the heat of the summer) and 50 Americanas (blue eggs).

This is the first time I have gotten my chicks so early. I usually get them in March but I realized 31 weeks puts their laying cycle close to August and I didn't have enough eggs for my CSA members. So this way I'll have some roll over and have eggs in May from this group. The others will still be laying so I should have a steady supply. We'll see how this works. I do have to make sure they stay plenty warm so that's a consideration. I might be a little excited!