The baby chicks are being brooded in the grow room in the city.  Because of how packed with plants it gets in the spring  getting ready to plant the garden, Basil had been sternly taught that she wasn’t to go in there.  She thought we were crazy when we kept trying to coax her in to see the babies; the thought being that if she got to kind of bond with them as they grew, she wouldn’t want to make them puppy sized chicken nuggets.

Today was rainy and gross so we did indoor projects.  One of them was cleaning the brooder.  As these little birds grow, they have decidedly picked up their capacity to poop.  Basil couldn’t deal with it anymore and slowly did the “If they don’t see me maybe I can slowly sneak in and see what all the fuss is about” slinking move into the room.  At first she didn’t really know there was anything in the tub.  As we were cleaning the brooder, the food dispenser was out on the floor so she thought chick feed made a nice snack.  After being distracted she finally responded to the chirping noises and looked over the top of the tank.  The looks on her face were priceless.  She is a purebred retriever and those doggie instincts of hers wanted to “play” with those little squeak toys worse than anything.

We got a couple of them out to sniff and she was mesmerized by all of the energy in the brooder (thirty three chicks scurrying around in a tizzy after having treats thrown in to them).  We have begun the quest to “chickenize” the dog.  We have read stories about how dogs can become great guardians of the hens…. we’ll see.   In the meantime, she isn’t going to be going into the big coop with them any time soon.