SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The soft, melodic sound of 50 baby chicks filled The Artistic Hound this past weekend as Yellowknifers waited for their new feathery friend to be plucked from the glass cage and placed in a small cardboard box for transport.
Artistic Hound employee Fiona Spencer, left, and co-owner Scott Anderson packaged up three-day-old chicks on Saturday for Yellowknifers to take home over the Easter holiday. Buyers have the choice of keeping the chicks or bringing them back to the store after a few days. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo |
Chick Day, as it's billed by the pet shop, allows residents to take a bird home to keep or borrow. Customers can bring them back to the pet store before the end of the week.
Store co-owner Scott Anderson said taking care of the chick is a fun experience for children and also a learning moment.
"Definitely (caring for a chick teaches) responsibility for the kids that don't have pets and how to take care of them and be gentle and the proper requirements needed for them," he said.
This is the sixth year Anderson and his wife Jessica Coulombe have run Chick Day, but the tradition was started under the previous store name J.J. Hobbies. The event, Anderson estimated, is in its 35th year.
For the chicks that are returned to the pet store by next Saturday, a new home is waiting for them at a chicken coop in Kam Lake where they will be kept to lay eggs. About a year later, however, the birds will stop producing eggs.
"After that the truth is ... they are slaughtered, but the meat is not that great for eating so usually it's used for soups or broths and stuff like that," said Anderson.
Most years, Anderson added, 10 of the 50 chicks aren't returned to the store and instead are kept by residents. Some keep them for the eggs while others treat them as pets, he said.
For those who decide to invite the bird into the family, there are a few things to think about, added chicken co-op member Dwayne Wohlgemuth.
First, the chicks need to be kept under a heat lamp and away from windows, doors or anywhere else there might be a draft. They will also need water, a hamster water bottle works well, and fine food, he said.
The Artistic Hound only provides enough feed for a week, so residents will have to find a new supply or make their own by grinding grains such as bulgur wheat, cracked buckwheat and cornmeal, Wohlgemuth said.
Also, when they're young they can be kept in a small container with wire mesh covering the top, he continued.
"They don't need much space really when they're tiny. For the first couple days a simple, small cardboard box will be good," Wohlgemuth said. "Even when they're big they don't need a whole lot of space. I mean, the more space the better. They can run around more and flap their wings more, but commercial barns, they'll have more than one bird per square foot on average."
Once the chicks get bigger, owners will want to put the birds outside. Given the sub Arctic climate, Wohlgemuth said owners will need to build an insulated coop with a heat lamp inside. The chicken's living area has to be kept above 0 C, he added.
It's also nice, he said, if the bird has a friend.
"I kind of believe that all animals, or most animals, are social," he said. "I think they're happier having company."
