Learning

This is our fifth spring buying new chicks.  This time we have not done such a very good job - this time, though, we learned something new which should have seemed so very obvious.

 We brought them home yesterday evening and we set up their box with food and water and showed them all where the food and water was by dipping their little beaks into both.  We worried, though, that two of the six were sluggish, quiet, and not walking around much.

This morning with one chick hardly moving, I worked on giving it water and it seemed to gain a little energy for a moment but died shortly after.  Another little chick followed much the same course within the next hour.

After reading online about chicks, the very simple advice is to be sure to hand feed any slow chicks as most chicks that die a few days after hatching, die from not getting enough food or water.

Now we know this - we know that we need to give lots of extra care to the sluggish ones - to the ones that cannot figure it for themselves right away.    This is the first time in five springs of raising chicks that this has happened.  Why do such simple lessons have to be learned the hard way sometimes?