Out in the Shop

Sean has been busy out in the shop working on restoring an old upright air compressor that he got from the old farm he was raised on when his parents moved. It has sat in the corner of the shop, I think, since we moved in here twelve years ago. He's been putting new gaskets, and a new motor on it. As well as making parts for it on his lathe. He's been working on it for months now and is at the point of actually turning it on and seeing if it will hold air successfully.

I went out to the shop that first day I got the chicks and saw that they had red metal bands around the base of their wings. This was done by the hatchery (Ideal) to mark them as pullets. I thought it would be a good idea to remove the bands since the chicks were often seen pecking at them. Since Sean was out there I asked for his assistance. I held a chick while he used the needle nosed pliers to unclasp the ends of the band. Then we thought it would just come off since it looked like it was just floating around the base of the wing. Nope, that metal band was punched through their tiny day old wing. The skin and muscle had adhered to the band and it wasn't coming out. So we did what any person would do and we Googled it. Apparently Ideal Hatchery is the only one that does this barbaric act and there were all sorts of people asking the same question on the chicken forums. The consensus was to either leave the band and let it grow into the wing of the adult bird (um no). Or to pull it out. So we pulled these bands out of five screaming baby chicks. It was awful. Ideal Hatchery will be getting an unhappy letter from me.

Notice the feathers and skin. Gross.