Surviving the Sauna to Save the Chicks (Plus 2 New Babies!)

Some days on the farm turn out to take a bit more effort and sweat... and this was the case a couple weeks ago when 600 baby chicks arrived at the farm!

Surviving the Sauna to Save the Chicks

My sisters, Lydia and Emma, were doing the usual procedure of dipping the chicks beaks in water as they unloaded them from the crates they came in so they would know where the water was. And that is when the trouble began...

The chicks all started attacking the water like crazy and getting soaked in the process! Usually there is plenty of space at the waterers, but I wonder if the very hot day before had them extra thirsty??

I quickly added several more waterers to spread them out, but to no avail. 600 chicks all trying to drink at once was not working out so well! Before we knew what to do, the majority of them were soaked and shivering...

We needed to act quickly as cold chicks is a bad deal! The problem was the propane heaters were already set at their highest temperature of around 90 degrees and they had shut off since that was what the temperature was already... We quickly scrambled around trying to find heat lamps to provide additional heat, but most of them weren't working since we haven't used them in a while.

Then I had an idea — "Let's put a wet rag on the propane heater's thermostat to trick it into turning on!" Praise God, it worked! The heaters turned on and started CRANKING OUT THE HEAT!

We quickly moved the several hundred wet chicks under the heaters and they huddled tightly together soaking up the heat. For the next few minutes we worked by the heaters moving the chicks around to make sure that none of them got trampled. IT WAS HOT!

The temperature climbed to around 117 degrees under the heaters which we were working right beside. THE CHICKS LOVED IT, but we on the other hand got SOAKED IN SWEAT! After around a half hour they started drying off and spreading back out. What a relief! 🐤

Now it was our turn to survive! We stepped outside to cool off and the 80 degree temperature felt like a 60 degree morning! It felt AMAZING! We took a few minutes to cool down and make sure that the chicks were all going to be fine.

It all turned out good with the chicks turning back into their fluffy run-around selves and none of them dying! Sometimes you just have to sweat it out to get the job done! GOOD WORK TEAM!💪

Two New Babies!

What's more exciting than six hundred new baby chicks? Two new babies in the family, of course!

A couple of weeks ago, both Philip & Mary and Esther & I welcomed our third children into this world! We praise God for safe deliveries and that the mothers and babies are doing well!

Ellen Marie was born on August 30th at home (we love our midwife Amie❤️). Juli and Nora (ages 3.5 & almost 2) are thrilled to have a baby sister!

Philip & Mary had Warren James six days later on September 5th! They also had the delivery at home with the same midwife:)

Their other two children are Christina and Luke (ages 3 & 1.5) and they are quite pleased with their new brother!

Children are truly a blessing from God and also a great responsibility! We trust that God will give us the wisdom to nurture and train our children in His ways! 

Both Philip and I took approximately one week off work to spend some time at home which was very nice! We were available to provide input to the team but they did a great job while we were away!

Blessings on your weekend!
 ~ Corbin
 
Prairie Creek Pastures