The Learning Curve

No matter how long you farm, you've always got something new to learn. Here are just a few of the gems we've gleaned from our first week as Open Book Farm:

• If you own multiple vehicles and live on a farm, it is a bad idea to carry the keys in your purse. You just might drive off somewhere really far away (say, New York) and accidentally take both sets of keys with you.
  
• Chick hatcheries can (and do!) sometimes send you your chicks earlier than you ordered them to arrive.
• It is very difficult to pick up baby chicks which are at the post office if you do not have the keys to a vehicle.
• Enterprise Rent-a-Car actually will deliver a rental car to your door.
• The rental car will not be, as in the commercial, completely wrapped in brown paper.
• It is advisable to complete the roof of your brooder before your chicks arrive.
• Day old chicks do not have much sense of self preservation.
  
• Black snakes can eat three baby chicks in about two minutes.
• Black snakes continue to move for a disturbingly long time after you chop off their head.