After cancelling the online order of chicks (because they had a “glitch” and couldn’t ship my chicks until May 20th), I went in search of local Faverolle chicks.
I had to drive an hour away to a feed store that received a shipment today, but they had faverolle pullets, and enough for me to get 12! There is a 5% chance that one is male, which would not be a bad thing, since I originally wanted a rooster too.
Here is a video, it is a little broken up, I’ll get better with practice!
Sophie is very curious about what I’ve brought home to put in “her house”.
Sophie hanging around the coop
Our kids were super excited when I picked them up from school. My eldest is already training them to be lap chickens. I think she will be successful because one fell asleep in her hand!
Sorry for the low quality picture, but it is a road runner, and they are fast. (Or, I spotted it driving out of the neighborhood and had to take a picture out my window because I haven’t seen one all winter.)
These birds are so much bigger than I thought they would be. No wonder Wile E. Coyote was obsessed, they would make a good meal if you could catch it. Btw, we have those here too. Here are a couple more meh quality photos from the trail cam last year:
CoyoteCoyote
Update on chicks: still no chicks. I have a few leads that I am following up on. Stay tuned. Anything worth having is worth waiting for.
I found two of these interesting caterpillars recently. One in the mulch under a post oak tree and one climbing up the side of the house.
Possible Ilia Underwing caterpillar crawling up the house
I put out a call for help for identification because my identification app doesn’t do well with caterpillars. Mark Barrett came to the rescue with this link. The caterpillar looks the same and is as lethargic as the one he found, but perks up when it thinks no one is watching.
Underside of caterpillar
But the underside of the caterpillar was the most interesting! Especially since the dorsal side has amazing camouflage.
On the chicken front, there are no chicks. The company I ordered from in JANUARY, had a computer “glitch” and didn’t send me chicks on Monday. The soonest they were willing to try to send again is the END of May. Grr. I get not having enough, but I would have taken fewer than I ordered, but blaming it on a glitch is ridiculous. So I cancelled the order and am looking closer to home. We are still determined to get Faverolles, so this could get interesting. Stay tuned.
I was planning to brood the chicks in a spare dog crate, but then I started building shelves for storage and my folks suggested that it would be easy to build in an isolation/brooder shelf. So I did! (The brooder table I made can be used for nesting boxes, so no wasted work.)
New brooder/isolation ward
I covered the asphalt paper and OSB board with plastic cardboard to protect the surface from the chicks and vice versa. My eldest helped me make wood frames for the doors (she is learning to use power tools), and then I stapled chicken wire on the doors and the open end. We put metal rods (threaded was cheaper than non-threaded) inside to hang the water and feed containers.
I made wood latches to hold the doors closed (I used the band saw, band sander, drill press, and compound miter saw today, it must be a good day!), and used nails to hold them in place so they will still turn easily.
The brooder area is about at counter height, to make it easier to access and to not freak out the chicks by swooping down from above. There is still lots of storage space above and below (doors will come later, but before the chicks have free run of the coop.)
Brooder set up
I used another piece of plastic cardboard to make a draft barrier. My eldest and I worked together to line the brooder with paper and rubber shelf liner, and we put Press and Seal on the top and plugged in the warmer to make sure it works.
I have chick starter, electrolytes and probiotic to add to the water, more paper, more shelf liner…there is still quite a bit to do before the chicks are older, but I think we are ready for chicks.
Now, will they come this week? I turned on informed delivery with USPS and there are no notifications. Hmm.
relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life.
Country life, Texas style.
Not my cow. It is my picture. And every time I hear the word bucolic, I think cows in a field. Since we are in Texas, it has to be a long horn standing in the field observing her domain.
Critters and Craft 