The Stork (USPS) Brought Us Some Baby Turkeys

Even though we do this often, it never fails to be interesting that baby chicks can safely be shipped in the mail. Four hundred turkeys arrived last week, in 13 boxes. They are overnighted from the hatchery, and the post office calls me as soon as they arrive. I then pick them up and take them directly to the pre-warmed brooder that is full of feed and fresh water. I enjoy opening the boxes and putting all the little poults in the brooder. We show them the water and place them directly on top of a mound of feed. Physiologically there is a cool phenomenon that allows chicks to be shipped in this manner. While in the eggshell, the yolk is the nutrition source for the developing chick. Just before the shell cracks and the chick hatches, something interesting happens. The remainder of the yolk is absorbed into the chick's abdomen. That is enough nutrition for the chick to get a good start in life and "figure things out" before they must depend on the food and water they can find on their own. You can see how that would be helpful for birds of all kinds born in the wild, but it also allows domestic chicks and poults to be shipped overnight in the mail. Typically the chicks arrive healthy and happy with an extremely high survival rate. This batch that rate was 99%. They'll be a week old on Tuesday, and are currently living happily in our brooder. In about 3-4 weeks they will go out to pasture. I'll keep you posted with plenty of pictures. P.S. One reason the post office calls immediately is that the chirping coming from these boxes is more than you would think. I took a video on the ride home with all 400 birds riding in the seat of my truck, and all chirping their little hearts out. I'll post that video on our Carlton Farms Facebook page if you'd like to check it out.