The Library Vault

A blizzard was coming.

That sounds like the opening of a novel, but it was, unfortunately, real life. It was early Saturday morning, 3:00AM to be exact, and I had just awakened with the realization that we had chicken eggs incubating in the children’s room.

This was a big deal because there was a probability the library would lose power during the storm. The incubator wouldn’t work if the power went out. If that happened the chicks would die.

I know that everything looks awful at 3:00 in the morning but this was keeping me awake.

Even worse was the timing. The blizzard was due to come in Sunday evening and last through Monday evening. We were expecting up to two feet of snow. We knew we would be closed on Monday and had no idea what would happen on Tuesday. And the chicks were due to hatch on Tuesday.

Shortly after 7am I began texting a few of my probably-still-sleeping coworkers about the problem. They all agreed something had to be done. I asked a member of our children’s department staff to call the farm where the eggs came from and ask asked if they would pick the eggs up. We all agreed we would rather send them back to the farm than let them die in a power failure.

When the farm responded they said, “We are monitoring the snow storm. It is safest for the incubator to stay in the library.”

We didn’t agree. There were several problems: The chicks needed to be kept warm or they would die. They also needed to be monitored during the hatching process. The chicks would have to be removed from the incubator 24 hours after the first chick hatched. If they remained too long in the incubator, they would die.

To say that I was getting stressed was the understatement of the week. We started discussing if anyone could take the chicks home with them. The big issue, of course, was what anyone could do to keep the chicks warm if they lost power at home during the storm. No one had a generator or any other way to power the incubator.

As Saturday evening was approaching, I mentioned the problem to some staff who hadn’t heard about the Chick Dilemma. Once she heard the story, Kelsey calmly said, “I can take them.”

I literarily did what all fictional characters do and blinked in surprise. I explained the issues: transportation from the library and back again, power loss, hatching. (By the way, the hatching process can be nerve-wracking. Yes, it’s fun but sometimes a few of the eggs don’t hatch and sometimes a chick dies during the process. Most staff were leery of having that happen on their watch.)

Kelsey didn’t seem worried. I knew she worked with the local animal control and Cat Tales, a cat rescue organization, so a few chicks apparently weren’t going to scare her. I asked how she would keep the chicks warm during a power outage. She suggested hot water bottles and hand warmers. She only lived five minutes away from the library, so the eggs would not be without heat for long as they were traveling. Another coworker helped her transport the chicken eggs, stabilizing them during the car ride.

She sent a picture when she had the chicks settled in their temporary home.

The blizzard hit right on schedule Sunday evening. The library was closed on Monday. We reopened at noon on Tuesday. Kelsey let us know that some of the eggs were showing pips and cracks. We all decided they had better remain at Kelsey’s house rather than risk transporting them as they were hatching.

At 5pm on Tuesday we got word that the first chick had hatched. The library director suggested letting Kelsey name the first one, and she picked the very appropriate name “Blizzard.”

Blizzard soon had three siblings. The chicks returned to the library on Wednesday morning and emerged from their incubator that evening. We drew names from the suggestion jar on the children’s desk and Blizzard was joined by Cyclone, King Houdini the Third, and Omelet.

And, in case anyone was wondering, I am sleeping better once again.

You can visit the chicks when you stop by the Children’s Department or watch them on our Chick Cam. We are also having a Hang with the Chicks session on Saturday, March 7^th 3:30pm.