--- author: Eric Wagoner date: '2002-02-04T01:43:00' draft: false title: New Chickens --- Early Saturday morning, somewhere [in Iowa](http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com), seventy-eight baby chickens were hatched. Yesterday morning, they arrived at my post office. They spent the day learning how to eat and drink and getting familiar with their surroundings: a blue plastic kiddie pool. My neighbor is getting an order of just-hatched chicks in tomorrow. His operation is a bit larger than ours; his order was for a hundred thousand. This same neighbor is plowing our field this week, so that the planting can begin.