Hanging with my Peeps

At about this time of year, absolutely eons ago when I worked in Texarkana, my reporter and I went to a Kmart/Walmart-y type of store and shot some video of little baby chicks. The cute little beggars were dyed with food color and resembled cheep-cheeping jelly beans. The story was about how baby chicks, darling though they are, make terrible Easter presents as they grow rapidly into chickens. Moreover, stores like Kmart/Walmart (our unnamed source of footage) were not good places to buy pets anyhow because animal care is not their focus.

As I didn't trawl pet sections before this report, and haven't since, I have no idea what has become of the Easter chick.

Until this week.

There was this strange noise in the library yesterday. I thought a bird had flown in and was twittering around. What it was -- my library's own peep coop. A small incubator, housing a dozen eggs, was next to a mini pen complete with warming light, water trough, smorgasbord tray and two little chicks. A magnet for kids, young & old.

Today I walked in and discovered an entire clutch of cuties. In 24 hours, 10 eggs had hatched! A few are light brown, many of the newbies are unsteady on their feet. There are two eggs left, ducks, waiting to be fashionably late. My initial shock has turned into amusement. The glitterati amongst the literati.

The Thursday before Easter, the company that markets this kind of educational experience will come pick them up and take them away--hopefully to a good place. In the meantime, I shall remain in the library hanging with my peeps.