Spring chicks are here — in boxes

The farm section of the store on South Hamilton Street is a popular spot this time of year for people buying chicks and other small creatures for egg-laying, table fare and plain companionship.

For a couple weeks, part of the store’s sales floor plays host to a veritable menagerie of little farm critters, housed in cardboard boxes and bathed in the light of heat lamps.

“My father began doing it years ago, getting them in the week before Easter,” said John Hubbard, whose father — Wayne — started there more than 35 years ago.

But over the years, the array of small creatures has expanded to include roosters, ducklings, turkeys and rabbits. A visit to the farm store last week took on an added dimension as customers gathered around a small village of oversized furniture boxes cut open to serve as cages for the separate species.

“The kids really like it,” Hubbard said as several students of elementary-school age scooped chicks from one of the boxes. “That’s what I like about having the chicks here — just seeing how the kids react.”

If you have guilty memories of those garishly-dyed peeps of yesteryear that seldom lived a few weeks past Easter, think again.

Hubbard said he and other store employees discourage that sort of misguided behavior. All or nearly all of his chicks are sold for just one reason, he said.

“Egg production,” Hubbard said. “They don’t make good pets. How many times have you seen a chicken on a leash?”

 Hubbard runs the store with his brother, Jim. Their dad and mother, Nell, are comfortably retired.

This year, the Hubbards brought in 800 chicks, 100 turkeys, and dozens of roosters, ducks and rabbits.

The rabbits sell for $15 apiece and are the only ones often bought as pets.

If there’s a surprise this year, John Hubbard says it would have to be the turkeys.

They sold like hot cakes compared to Easter 2010, when he was left with so may extras that he ended up giving the turkeys away.

And the ducklings?

“People usually buy them for their ponds,” he said.

The chicks require a fair amount of work to keep healthy. Their hygiene leaves a lot to be desired, so their water must be changed often. The heat lamps are necessary to keep the temperature in the low 90s to maintain the body warmth the chicks can’t generate on their own.

From roosters to rabbits, each species has its own large box that draws onlookers like a magnet. But the ducks have the most space after benefiting from the popularity of the turkeys that used to live in the box next door.

After the last turkey was sold to someone perhaps looking ahead to a future Thanksgiving feast, the Hubbards cut a hole between the boxes to give the ducklings easy access to the little gobblers’ former home.