I got a call from the hatchery last week. No chicks. It seems the turkey poults that I ordered weren't going to make it. So, instead of sending just the chickens (thus incurring double the shipping) they wanted to send them all this week. It's a double edged sword: I was excited about them coming, but as they were now going to be conspicuously absent I took the time to double check all my preparations and make sure I was not missing anything. Plus I got to enjoy the holiday weekend without worrying about feeding or watering anything (other than the kids). Thank God for the blessing of unexpected free time.
I called again this afternoon. They are processing about 400 orders today. I really had no idea they did that many orders. Apparently the turkeys are taking longer to hatch than expected. He told me a bit about their procedures. They do a lot of shuffling to meet demand based on what hatches, how many hatch, and what the orders are. They have to sex the bird (determine if it is male or female - glad I don't have that job) and then segregate them. They also have some special processing for some (like de-beaking) or no processing at all (like ours). If they have a week where some batches don't seem to be hatching well (like ours last week), then "we have a little bit of chaos."
Hmmm...I can't remember every having just a little bit of chaos.
So on we wait and listen (for the phone) to see if we'll have chicks tomorrow or not. I'll keep you posted.
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