On the Banks of Nettle Creek: Chicken in the oven

Yesterday I stopped at the local ag store, Big R, to pick up some animal feed. While there I saw signs saying all remaining chicks were $1 each. Regular price for chicks isn't terribly expensive - $2.50 to $4 but gosh, a buck a piece? Of course I had to get some, nevermind that we already have 10 layers, 11 half-grown layers and 45 meat chicks. I picked out some golden laced wyandottes that I'd been wishing for. A few more Americaunas because they lay such beautiful eggs and have such beautiful feathers. And oh my goodness - they have bantams, too? We haven't had bantams for a loooong time. They have so much personality - I'll take five! I put their little boxes in the back of the car and hurried through my grocery shopping.

I have heat lamps, chick feeders and waterers set up for the meat chicks we got last week so I put the new chicks out there with them. Most of them started eating, drinking and scampering around but one little bantam chick just sat there. I checked on him several times before bed and he hadn't moved. I figured I'd find a dead little chick on that spot in the morning.

But this morning he was still alive! I decided he deserved some TLC so I brought him in the house in his little chick box, gave him feed and some sugar water but how to keep him warm? I didn't have a spare heat lamp so I thought about putting him on a heating pad. But then I realized that if I put him in the oven with the light on he'd be warm and free from drafts. He has spent the day in his box in the oven and over the course of the day he's perked up! He's eating and drinking and his eyes are much brighter. Anne took him out and held him for a while and by jingle, when we put him back in the oven he was so distressed at being left alone again he started cheeping at the top of his lungs. He cheeped so loud from inside the closed oven that the dogs in the basement started whining and barking and the cat sat in front of the stove staring at the oven! Anne ended up holding him for a while while I went out to the chicken house and got another little bantam chick to put in with him for company. Hopefully by tomorrow they'll be ready to join all the others. But for tonight, there's definitely chicken in the oven! Another one of my "bargains" that has turned into an adventure.