It actually started Friday morning.  I became ill Wednesday evening with a stomach flu so Tom was managing the farm.  He reported Thursday that our tom turkey attacked one of our female turkeys. He put her in the chicken pen to keep her safe from him.  But I found her dead Friday morning.  She had been thin after setting on eggs for a bit that didn’t hatch.  So I felt bad and responsible.  Here are the three turkey hens we have left.

But then Saturday morning I picked up our order of chicks that I was expecting.  Unfortunately there was a blizzard in the Midwest. They were hatched in Iowa and then shipping to Minneapolis on the way here.  Per USPS they arrived there Thursday afternoon there but didn’t arrive here until Saturday.  There were 55 chicks but only 17 are alive on arrival here.  I tried my best, but they kept dying.  As of last evening and this morning there were only two alive.  They are still alive this evening so I am hopeful for these two little survivors.

I will get replacement chicks but asked that they be shipped in late April when the weather should be more agreeable.  I feel sick for the suffering of these poor dead chicks though.  I have ordered from this hatchery for many, many years, but this is the first problem I have had.  But have learned that hard way that March is not the time of year to be ordering chicks.