After returning from our honeymoon on a Monday, we were to get peeps that Tuesday and Wednesday. I was like a kid at Christmas...waiting and waiting...it couldn't come soon enough. Excited for the peeps...I guess, but more so for the first real job as a chicken farmer's wife.....to help dump the peeps!
I walked out with Rod toward the chicken house that Tuesday...trying to keep at his pace so I wouldn't look too eager. I wanted to run out there to the chicken house....but trying to keep my pride, and also knowing my bones are not what they used to be...I just walked beside him. Proud to be his wife...and proud to be finally helping him. I was beaming! (No, it doesn't take much to make me happy)
So, the truck came and I was given instructions from Rod and also a friend of ours, who had helped to do this before. I tried to listen so that I could do it right. I wanted to make a good impression for my new husband.
Well...here is my take on it....1. You have to move fast...and keep the rhythm ...which I didn't do too well, but not totally horribly 2. You can't think about the peeps...ummm...that was hard 3. You don't gently dump...its grab the tray, kind of throw and dump at the same time, and get that tray back quickly so that you don't mess up the stacking, grab the next one and just keep going....not too good at this either.
My problems....I was slower than the other guy, so my rhythm and his were off....I did think about those poor baby peeps. They were just babies. And sometimes one would have its leg stuck in a hole...I couldn't just leave it there...I had to get it out. So I sort of kept messing up the stacking.
But I tried the best I could. Rod said I did good for the first time...only I was a little too gentle! :) oops!
Wednesday came, and I couldn't figure out why my back hurt..until I remembered what I had been doing the day before. I will say, on Wednesday, I tried not to think about the peeps...I tried to keep up with the other guys (we had more people there on Wednesday because we were getting more peeps)...and I tried not to let on to the others that I was tired by the end of it! I felt very accomplished, even though I still am not too good at it. We put in around 34,000 peeps! That is a lot of peeps!
Here are a few things I have learned about chickens over the last several years of dating Rod...1. Cocks or Cockerels are the boys. Pullets are the girls. I still have to think about this most of the time. For reasons I will not discuss on a public blog. Just ask me sometime when you see me. 2. White chickens are yellow peeps to start. Blacks and Grays are very similar in color...but the grays have white feathers mixed in with the black feathers. Makes sense! (We got grays this time, but they looked like black peeps to me). But Reds are my favorite of the colors...we didn't get any in this time though. 3. The peep is actually formed from the white of the egg....the yellow part stays inside the peep and is food for its body...yuck! Rod said if you would cut open a newborn peep, you could see this. Bigger Yuck! Why would you want to? 4. The Chinese don't eat the white chickens because they have blue eyes.
Ok...for now, I am done...tomorrow I will write about my experience of "walking through" or checking the chickens. Until then...eat more CHICKEN! hahaha
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