Our chickie babies are adorable. Their set up?
Not so much.
The cuties live in our breezeway, that is basically a covered walkway. The walls are left with a gap at the floor for run off when it rains. But also for old air to whoosh in when temps drop. With a forecast of blizzard strength winds and cold coming through, I had to protect those babies. While they are tiny, they need to be kept at 90 degrees and drafts can kill them.
So the gaps got pool noodles from Dollar Tree stuffed into them.
Which helped a lot, but the back door had no weather stripping and we were expecting 50-60 mph winds.
That sounds a bit drafty, huh?
So I gathered up my precious plastic bags (our town passed a law not allowing them in stores. But I find them so useful for many things, that I’ve hoarded a few). In bigger gaps, I used some bubble wrap, but in most spots the bags were ideal. I stuffed them into the leaky areas all around the door with a butter knife.
Not pretty.
But the peeps are!
Well under their red heat lamps, they might look more demonic than pretty in photos.
For now, they are sweet, tiny fluffs of cheeps, and I just love them to pieces. They will eat from my hand and run up and down my arm, feeling weightless and tickley.
Fingers crossed that they stay healthy and happy. We’ve had good luck raising babies, just to become fond of them and face heartbreak when they get slaughtered by creatures wanting a snack.
The worst part is that the wild animals massacre as many as possible. I understand they need to eat, but why not pick off one to fill their bellies? Why kill every bird in the yard at once and leave the carcasses behind?
This year, I bought way more birdies than we needed, hoping for safety in numbers. The plan wasn’t to get so many, but when I was choosing those lil fluffs, I went a tad bonkers, wanting two of each kind along with the planned dozen we had come to get. Let’s hope we can raise them to be as sweet and friendly as our last girls and that we can do a better job of keeping them safe.
