I was a small girl, mama always ordered sexed baby chicks early in the spring in February or March, according to the weather. She got White Leghorn pullets for laying purposes. She prepared a “hover for them from a big cardboard box and topped it with another flattened box made into a tent shaped cover. She made a hole in the middle top for escaping fumes from a kerosene lamp that she placed inside for heat. She made curved corners so the baby chicks would not gather in the corner and smother themselves. The floor was covered with either sand or straw. She usually started the chicks in the kitchen for the first few days. Mama ordered the chicks from a hatchery and they were delivered to our post office in a large divided cardboard box that had many dime sized holes for ventilation. The bottom was covered with wood shavings or a soft straw. Our mail carrier usually notified us that the chicks were in. It was exciting for Lila and I to go with mom to bring them home. As you entered the Post Office, you could hear them cheeping. We peeked at them all of the way home through the tiny holes. Mama gently scooped up several at a time and put them down in their new boxed home. She fed them in small chicken feeders and watered them with small galvanized trays that screwed onto quart jars filled with water. She fed them mash and often sprinkled a handful of oatmeal in their box. They scrambled for that treat. She changed the straw daily and made sure the chicks did not get the box wet, because some of the little girls would always stand in the water to drink. When the weather was warm enough, the chicks were moved to the brooder house and still housed in boxes until they were large enough to roam around in the room. Then, they would go to the hover at dark. Mama weaned them to darkness by turning the lamp down slowly. Mama got a metal hover as soon as she could afford one. It usually hung from a rafter by a wire. Mama got very emotional when she lost a chick, but that was not often. When the chickens were old enough, mama let them out of their pens to forage around the farm. At night, she rounded them up by shooing them toward their pen with a white flour sack dish towel. They liked to roost in trees and were sometimes hard to get down. It was not long until they were trained to come to roost on their own. Mama took very good care of her chickens and soon they were laying eggs. She fed them what she called laying mash. (finely ground and green in color) She always kept oyster shell out that made the egg shells more firm. The early pullet eggs were very small and got larger as the chickens aged; we ate the small eggs and sold the larger ones. The egg yolks were a dark yellow orange when they ate green grass. We had two egg crates, one was a single one and the other a double one. Mama sold the eggs to the feed store where she bought their feed. Hens loved to “set” and often hid their nests away from the chicken house and would come back with a bunch of little fluffy yellow chicks following her. I have been pecked many times while trying to steal an egg out from under a setting hen. Mama rarely kept a rooster because fertilized eggs did not keep long. That never stopped the hens from setting though. For several years, we had both Bantam hens and roosters. They always hid their nests.

Any copyright remains with the artist.
There is no commercial use of it.





Created December 23, 2020

Updated: 14 June, 2021

Webmaster ~ Ray Clark ~ rayclark07"at"gmail.com

Return To Depression Days

Return To Home Page