2 chicks with 10 chicks take New York: Part 1

In my quest to be a well rounded urban farmer, I signed up to attend a workshop that Jenna Woginrich is hosting at her farm in upstate New York.  ( For those of you not familiar with Jenna, please check out her blog and books at  coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com )  I read her blog daily, love her books, and frankly I find her determination and moxie refreshing.  She is living the life I want to live, but am too chicken (no pun intended...) to just yet....  The workshop that I signed up for is a workshop on raising chickens from day 1 to the dinner table.  As part of the workshop, each person gets to take home 5 chicks to raise for their table.  I have been super excited about this for weeks!  Of course the Reluctant Farmer has come along with me on this grand adventure, but in her usual fashion: reluctantly.  

So before we leave Ohio, Reluctant Farmer asks me: "Have you made reservations for a campground or hotel yet?!"  (She has been reminding me to do this for weeks, and I have procrastinated of course....)  I reassured her that all would be well, and the reservations would be made as soon as possible.  Turns out Reluctant Farmer had good reason to be stressed.  It is hard to find a hotel that will accept pets.  It is even harder to find a hotel that will allow you to room with 10 chickens!  

I spent all of my lunch break and most of the evening Thursday calling around to various hotels and bed & breakfast establishments with no luck.  As soon as they ask you what kind of pet you are traveling with and you mumble chickens there is a long pause and quickly they realize the vacant rooms have all been filled.  (This is the nice response.  One hotel just hung up on me!)  After searching every hotel in a 100 mile radius and coming up empty handed, I decided that I would just tell the hotel that I had a dog.  I fully intend on sneaking these chickens through the backdoor tomorrow.  Wait until they get a load of this room!  It is one thing to sneak some chickens into a Super 8, and a whole other ballgame when you are sneaking them into a 5 star hotel.  

I have a feeling that the chickens will be very happy with all of the effort I have put into securing this posh hotel room for them.  Pictures of the babies to follow....

The unsuspecting hotel room.  Rumor has it, chickens love olive green with chocolate accents!