The Connection

Spring made a visit to the area on April 21, bringing a clear sunny day, perfect for a ride out River Road with a couple of chicks.

Baby chickens, that is.

It was chick return day at Rocklands Farm in Poolesville. The end of a week-long Chick Rental program the farm offers each year to give people the opportunity to care for chicks in their own homes.

This year, the farm rented out about 240 pairs of chicks, said Greg Glenn, co-founder and farm manager at Rocklands Farm.

Glenn said he thinks the chick program is a great way for families to unite in caring for new life and talking about where food comes from. The chicks will soon become fryers, Glenn said.

As the chicks were returned, there were last goodbyes, leaving fond memories for adopters to take home for the year ahead.

“It was great,” said Ophelie Chevalier, of Washington, D.C. She and her family have rented chicks before.

“This time it was really funny,” she said. “The chicks followed [the children] around the house and we took them to school one morning.”

Chevalier said she feels her children Solenne, 9; Clovis, 6; and Ulysse, 4, learned a lot from having the chicks and watching them grow.

And, she said, they had many discussions about the fact that the chicks had to go back to the farm.

Solenne said she thought the chicks were really cute.

“I liked playing with them,” she said. “I especially liked when they snuggled with me.”

Danielle and her three young children drove from Arlington to return the four chicks they rented. She agreed it was fun having the chicks for a week and said she would definitely recommend the experience to others.

“They started out as little yellow fluff balls and then their wings came out,” she said.

Kevin Breen, who grew up in Potomac and is now a National Park Ranger in Washington, D.C. helped Glenn with the returns, taking chicks out of boxes, putting them into a livestock trailer and answering questions.

“He is the chicken whisperer,” Glenn said.

Justin Rommel, 10, of Bethesda, returned Chet and Larry, his chicks for a week.

“We did this because our cousins did this before and we thought it was really cool,” he said.

And it did turn out to be really cool, he said. “It was just really sweet.”

He didn’t even mind taking care of them.

“You have to check on them three times a day,” he said. “When they poop, you just put bedding on it.”

Renters get two chicks, a sturdy cardboard box, bedding, feed, bowls and care instructions. The rental period is for one week, this year from April 14-21.

Several boxes came back decorated with drawings of chickens, some had stickers, hearts and spring flowers on them, offering home décor for the chicks. Almost everyone had names for their chicks. The most common name seemed to be Peeps, but there were others like Chick-a-Dee and Cackle. One family named their chicks Ding and Dong because the chicks got so excited when the doorbell rang.

Another large groups of chicks were named for relatives or Disney characters: Rosie, Lilly, Dori and Lori, Daisy and Daffodil.

And, it turned out, the chick rental was not just for families with young children.

Lu Anne, from Damascus, said she has rented chicks for the last three or four years.

“They are just darling, it’s like my nurturing thing,” she said. “It was just a lot of fun.”

As the chicks came back and took up residence in the converted livestock trailer, families took advantage of the day to enjoy the farm. Cattle were grazing in a field nearby and there was a flock of laying chickens off in the distance. A sow had four or five newborn piglets snuggled against her.

Nearby, Scout, the farm dog, dropped a stick at the feet of whoever he thought would be willing to play fetch with him. Most people got the message and obliged.

Glenn said that at the end of June they would have another rental program, with ducklings instead of chicks.

That program has a pickup date of June 30 and drop off on July 7. For more information visit www.rocklandsfarmmd.com, select Education at the top, then duckling rental.