After so many years of raising chicks annually, we've got chick care down to a science....until I forget to follow the rules. Problem one this year was when I started out with the automatic feeder you can see at the top of this post instead of the tray feeder I usually use with very young chicks. I had forgotten that minuscule feet can hop right in the larger automatic feeder and scratch grain all over the ground. After wasting about half a gallon of feed, I remembered and went back to the old way. I'll upgrade to the automatic feeder once the chicks are eating the entire contents of the tray feeder in a day and need a bigger reservoir.

The bigger mistake I made was completely forgetting to shut the brooder door on Friday night. Keep in mind that the brooder is located only a few feet from our back door, in an area fenced off from the wilds and patrolled by Lucy at regular intervals. Despite this supposed safety, I woke up to one dead chick, a spooked flock, and perhaps four other birds missing. (It's hard to count when they're all cowering in the weeds.) It always hurts when you lose plants or animals due to human error, but hopefully the sad reminder (plus Mark's backup memory) will suffice to keep the brooder door closed every night in the future.

On the plus side, the surviving chicks are growing like crazy and have reached that perfect age where they like to ramble through the nearby raspberry patch. It's fun watching each breed grow into its unique feathers!