Easter Egg Hunt

I didn't know how much I would like my chickens.  A couple weeks ago Dad and Justin dropped off some eggs at Crystals house.  She was so excited they had found some eggs and picked up some for her.  I had know clue there was an egg shortage.  I also learned the egg prices, OUCH!

I was thankful for our Chickens.  Unfortunately chickens prime laying years are their first 3-4 years then things slow down.  We are going into our 4th year with our chickens and they are slowing down.  It has been especially evident now that Avram is home from his mission because he eats a lot of eggs.  Before I knew about the egg crisis we knew we needed to replace our old chickens with new ones.  

When I started my chick hunt I began to realize there wasn't just a shortage of eggs but chickens are a very desirous item also.  

Most of there store that sale Chicks bring in a batch each week starting the end of January until early May.  I have never had a hard time finding chicks.  Sometime it was difficult to find the breed I wanted but Im not too picky if it means they lay 250-300 eggs per year.  

As I called different stores to find out their updates for the chick orders I realized there was a similar comment made, "a lot of people are interested in chicks this year" and "I wouldn't wait very long to get in once the order arrives."  

Adam and I stopped by IFA around 11:30am, knowing they were going to start selling chicks at noon.  I told Adam that it seemed like a lot of people want chicks so let's just get there and get our chicks.  I really want to get the chicks going because the sooner we get chicks, the sooner we get eggs.  We decided to pick up enough to replace our current chicks plus two extra.  We arrived at 11:30 and there was a line of people waiting for Chicks! 

IFA didn't quite know how to handle the craze of people waiting for chicks.  They tried to organize things in the best possible way but there were people arguing about who was in line first and who should get what chicks.  CRAZY!  Anyway, we got there in time to get the exact chicken we wanted and the exact number.  Unfortunately one of the employees at IFA told me about a chicken breed they were getting in that lays pink and purple eggs.  I thought that would be fun to get one or two of those chicks so we could have a variety of colors.  That breed of chick would be in until next Friday.  

Ok so the next dilemma is that if I wanted more chicks (and if I wanted to raise them with the other new chicks and not have to keep them in a separate cage) I had to get them within two weeks of the others.  So Adam and I went back the following week for these two other chicks.  

We decided to get there around 11:30 again.  We arrived early then planned, just due to the errands we were doing.  When we pulled in the parking lot there wasn't an open space.  People were everywhere.  Adam dropped me off at the door and I headed to the end of the line.  I was standing in a line that went around the entire store 45 mins before they were even planning to start the sale of the chicks.  

There were some very serious chicken owners in that line.  Most of them didn't know there had been chicks the week previous.  Well I got lucky again.  I had to wait in a line for almost 2 hours but I got the chicks I wanted.  Instead of just buying the 2 chicks I planned to get, I decided to pick up 6 more.  I couldn't believe the amount of people still flowing into the store when I finally left.  Maybe 1/3 of the people that arrived between 11-1 got chicks.  

After leaving the store I opened my box of chickens and immediately knew we were going to have one of the chicks die.  It was frustrating that the employee picked a chicken that was obviously so weak, but I guess under the circumstances it is hard to be choosy.  

We hand fed the chick for a day and a half but I don't think that chick was even able to walk.  When I realized that the chick was not going to survive we let it go.😇

 Im pretty sure the chick would never walk, she couldn't stand at all.  

Ok, That is way more then you ever wanted to know about chickens but if you are thinking about getting chicks, just know its a little tricky right now.