Playing With The Chicks

Becky is not a fan of birds in general. The chickens are not her favorite animal around here. Neither are the dogs, really. Which just leaves the pond fish. And I'm fairly certain that the pond fish rank number one on her list of pets here because they don't smell, shed, make noise, or need fed. In fact, she can forget that they're even here for months on end.

When we got the chickens, she wasn't too concerned about their presence because they're way up there in the chicken coop and nowhere near the house. Or her. But the baby chicks are another story altogether. They live in our kitchen. Becky sees them very day. She hears them when she wakes up in the morning and can't get away from the incessantly happy chirping. She claims they're obnoxious. They sound like spring has arrived in our house. That could stand to reason that she's a spring hater.

I couldn't help but ask her to come watch the chicks the other night, though, even knowing that she's not fond of them. We had just turned all the lights off and were getting ready to head upstairs for bed. We have an extensive lock-down ritual before bed that involves herding four dogs to four crates, and now making sure that the chicks' light is on. The chicks need a heat lamp to keep them warm, but they're not like newborn puppies. Newborn puppies that aren't kept warm will die. Three day old chicks will not. I know. Someone turned off their light overnight once and while they were shivering in the morning, they're all still alive.

But a funny thing happens when the kitchen lights are turned off, and it's just the soft glow of the warming light. When it becomes dark, the chicks all stop scratching and pecking and walking around, and kind of quickly saunter to the warming light and find a spot to sleep. And then, just to show Becky how fun it was, I turned on the kitchen light again. Those sleepy little chicks sprung to their feet quicker than you can blink and went off in search of something to scratch and peck at. Ten little chicks just kind of sprung into action. And then we turned the kitchen light off, because we needed to go to bed. And ten little chicks stopped scratching and pecking and immediately walked to the circle of light by the warming lamp, hunkered down, and closed their eyes.

Don't you wish it was that easy to put toddlers to bed?

So we all headed upstairs, and as I was playing a rousing game of Words with Friends, Becky opened the door and said, "those chicks are so much fun to play with! I had to go back downstairs and turn the light on and off a few times because it's too funny to watch them wonder why it's such a short day."

Chicks may have just gained a bit of favor in her world.