All About That Space, and Sexing Chicks

Leaving this place was the beginning of our journey home, eight months ago.

Here, Thomas and I had been welcomed graciously. to live for a month.

Here, my friends and I incubated an idea. In these spaces, so well suited to teaching garden and kitchen basics, we had done just that, with the always impressive residents and students of Fundación Niños de los Andes.

As we left to catch a taxi to the bus station, to begin the long trek back home from Manizales, Colombia, I turned and took these photos, in a moment of reverence for the role this place, and its specific attributes, played in realizing a dream.

Call it an eternal soft spot for the unsung hero, but I think thinking about the silent stoic spot in which something is supposed to happen is also pragmatic.

You have to plan the void, it's step one in most projects. So goes it with a workshop, a blog, a home, a garden, a brooding box, you know, your average wannabe backyard farmer's usual domains.

Back home, and a whole fall and winter later, we are now entering year eight of domestic hen management, and have decided to bring some new little ladies onto the team.

Sure, it's fun to shop breeds and dream up cute office lady names (I WILL HAVE MY BRENDA!) but before hitting the feed store to pick up the li'l peepers, we must make sure they have a place to stay that meets all of their itty bitty cute wittle needs. As adorably fluffy as they are, their body temperature still can't sustain a long time away from a heat lamp, so their spot must be ready for them immediately. Commence: void planning.

We start with the box.

You can go different ways with this, depending on what you have handy, but I like something high-walled and sturdy. Over the years, this part of an old tool trunk has been home to not only chicks, but ducks, puppies, and kittens.

For chicks, we use a couple of inches of shredded pine bedding to keep them warm and cleanish. I change it out weekly when they're a couple of weeks old.

For the feeder and water dispenser, it's a good idea to create a sturdy base first, with a heavy plate. This minimizes the amount of bedding that invariably finds its way into the food and water.

Slap a heat lamp on that bad boy and you're done! 

The heat lamp is essential, and is usually easy to purchase wherever chicks are sold. Baby chickens cannot keep themselves warm enough without one. 

But here's the equally important spot, far from the warmth of the heat lamp.

Why does this cool zone matter so much to the health of young hatchlings?

Because they must be able to move across a spectrum of temperatures, as the larger ambient temperature fluctuates throughout the day. Warm, cool, and all points in between: they need the range and freedom so that they adjust their location and stay healthy. It's also not a bad idea to park the food and water in the middle, so it doesn't get bacteria-nurturingly warm, nor tummy-chilling cold.

Oh yeah,  if you have any curious critters sharing the space, be sure to get something sturdy to cover it, that doesn't trap the heat or air inside the box.

"What? I only want to play with them! (with my claws and teeth)"

So, it was off to the farm store to buy some babies. Only this time, while we love and care for them fully, we are also holding them at arm's length for the first time, and here's why. And how. 

Why: These chicks were bought "straight run," which means their sex has not yet been determined. Seven years ago, our first flock ended up being 50% failure, despite having been "sexed." Our backyard farm is an arcane example of gender inequality: Hens Only. So, when we heard cockadoodledoodling, we had to send two of our beloved babies packing . 

This year, when we found out the only chicks available immediately were straight run, it should have meant no chicks for us, for another month or so. But, we took to the internet and discovered that with some breeds, you can compare chicks and look for several physical traits and try to buy only females. 

Thomas was tasked with making the cheat sheet, on sexing Barred Rock chicks, for us to take with us to the farm store. It was a meeting of the minds, down at the co-op, as Geza, Thomas, and I compared foot color and head spots, gently extended tiny wings, and generally bored the good staff of the store. We made our best guess and brought home these three.

"Did you just assume my gender?"

How: The plan this year was to acquire five chicks total. However, instead of buying five straight run chicks, we only bought three. This leaves room for some losses, and gives us a chance to buy a few more chicks later, when sex-link breeds (chicks whose markings indicate their sex) will be available.

The cold fact is, any and all of these baby birds may only spend a few months here before crowing one day and moving out the next.  That'd be sad, but here's an old farm trick for keeping baby animals you want to cuddle, despite the fact that one day you might turn on them and kick them out or cut their heads off: No names, office lady or otherwise.

Seven years of doing this, okay? We're not brooding little babies, we're fully feathered flocksters! We can be tough and zen and grown-up about things. We will give this time more space, wait, and only name the ones we are sure are staying. 

Except you, Brenda, even if you are a rooster.

Watch It: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

Well, folks, this is it. We finish up our Queue de Grâce odyssey with a light-hearted, but spooky, comedy,  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), directed by Charles Barton. The movie follows the adventures of two delivery men, Chick and Wilbur, who are charged with delivering Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster to a House of Horrors. While trying to do their job, they encounter one fright after another, get tangled up with a well-meaning werewolf, and wander further into danger.

For my kids, this was an introduction to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, a comedy duo big in the days of vaudeville, who carried their success into the world of television and films.

Today, we were all able to enjoy this one. It's a stormy Sunday, so we didn't need much convincing to pop a dozen cubic yards of popcorn and pile on the couch with an old quilt and a slightly less old chihuahua*, to see what Cole has in store for us today.

 * He's going to miss movie week most of all. The couch has never been so warm.

Today on this movie, we can watch ghosts. The monster is a toy. The monster toy  is getting these guys. The guys got scary, and the guys giving a barrel. Because the guy putting the barrel on the water. The monster toy is putting the cape on the water. I like that movie, it was scary. It was getting these guy. It was feel scary and now I'm being a monster. Look at me. *ROAR!*

 

This was the first work by Abbott and Costello that I've seen, but it is pretty much what I expected. To me, the funniest parts are when Costello is shocked to the point where he can't speak and he just has to pantomime everything. You recognize every event because of how well he plays it out. It's a little like a silent movie, for this reason. 

Another thing I found hilarious was that. for some strange reason, a very beautiful woman is very much in love with Wilbur and everyone is shocked by this. But, of course it turns out that the woman is just using it as a strategy to trick him into something that she wants from him. This is all compounded when another woman employs the exact same strategy. Once again, this other woman needs him for something , so she pretends to be in love with him. With  two women both pretending this same thing he starts thinking he's really hot stuff.


  I like this movie. There was a monster, and there was Chick and there was Wilbur, and there was Abbott and there was Costello. There was a wolfman and he turned into a wolf. There was the ocean and a paddle boat. They paddled.



The directors had a pretty good idea when they did this. The animation was really good. I liked how Wilbur was always trying to tell his friend, Chick, how he sees all of these monsters and stuff, and he's the only one who sees it. It's so silly how they conveniently come out of his sight when he want to find Chick and show him. I'd say, this movie scores ten sub sandwiches out of five.

 I loved Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, it was so funny. Even though it is a live action movie, it still has this very cartoony feel to it. Usually, around this point, I'll say what I liked about the film, but what I like best about this movie was the movie! 

The Wolfman was trying to stop Chick and Wilber's delivery from going through because he knows that Count Dracula was trying to bring Frankenstein's monster back, because he was trying to.. uh, you know, that confuses me. Why did Dracula want to bring the monster back?


Don't overthink it.







 
 Don't overthink it? Okay. Oh, ha! You should put that in the blog, you telling me not to overthink it.




 
 I will.







 You should also put in me telling you to put it in.





Okay.






 
So he gets entangled with Chick and Wilbur, trying to get them to help him stop Dracula from using Frankenstein's monster. Let's just assume he wants to use the monster to terrorize people, just because that's what Dracula's biggest goal is in life.

Favorite line: I saw what I saw when I saw it.
Exactly, Wilbur. Some of us only see what we want to see. But, Wilbur has an open (some might say empty) mind and can only notice whatever is around him, because he just can't help noticing it. The others were so close to seeing the same thing, like Chick, and were denying it. They basically didn't want to see it because they didn't want to believe that such things existed to begin with. It could be right in front of them and they wouldn't notice it.

 What is not to love about Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein?  The "Big Three" Universal films horror monsters, all running around a drafty mansion, something like four(?) consecutive full moons, and Abbott and Costello, who always entertain me with their contrasting personalities. Abbot plays the serious straight man, eternally tasked with trying to tamp down the quivering, whistling, buzzing ball of chins that is Costello. I like how they're constantly wearing similar or identical clothes, like a grown-up pair of brothers. Whether they're in uniform, lounge wear, or snazzed up for a night on the town, the laugh factor of whatever they're doing is heightened by their matching outfits. 

So there we have it! We took the Queue de Grâce challenge by the horns, and wrestled it to the ground. We have changed its clothes, fed it snacks, and snuggled it like crazy. This is a week I'll always feel grateful for, not just for the leisure and entertainment, but the discipline and ordered interaction between us as a family. We weren't just putting some movie on, we took this business seriously. Afterward, there were conversations, orations, costumes, props, team work, sabotage, mutiny, apologies, and more team work. Watching and discussing the films chosen for us was a unique family experience. We so appreciate the interaction with all of you, fair readers. And to you, Cole, we extend a heartfelt, if not sticky, Family Hug. Thank you.