Category: chickens

Shake those tail feathers!

On By CarynIn chickens

During the morning health check it took me a minute to figure out what was going on; the chicks had something new on their derrière: tail feathers! And their wings are longer! I guess I know where all that feed is going. Some must be going into the chicks even though it seems like it is all on the floor.

Tail feathers!

I am also working with our dog on understanding that these chicks are family, not toys. So he has been coming out to the coop with me and staying in down position while I do the health checks. Mostly the down position, he does have to be reminded.

But Mom…

I am also giving each chick a bit of a cuddle during health checks to make them more comfortable. It seemed to work, each one settled down when I held them today. However Izzy, our inside cat, was not happy. She was not in the coop, but she can see the coop from her catio and apparently hear me cooing to the chicks, and was highly offended. She meowed, loudly, until we came out.

So you can see them shake their tail feathers, and ring the bell, here is a video.

Learning curves

On By CarynIn chickens

I’m definitely learning as we go with these chicks. Before we had chicks, I did my research, visited chickens, and consulted with my folks, but there are still aspects that I didn’t really get until we had chicks. Like how much they eat. And that it is easier to put a divider in the brooder rather than remove all the chicks for health checks. It is definitely an experience!

Dividing the coop makes health checks less stressful

And experimenting to see what the chicks like is also interesting. We have two brooders and I set up the second one at a different height (at the suggestion of my folks). They seem to like it. We’ll see where they curl up to sleep. (Maybe they will all just sleep on top like this one!)

Brooders at two different heights

And if you are carrying two gallons of water down to the coop in the dark, turning on the flashlight on your phone and tucking the phone in the top of your jeans in front of your belly button makes a pretty good area light.

I took video of the chicks sleeping. No one is sleeping on top. A few are under the higher brooder. Most are squeezed against the far wall. Their fancy LED nightlight broke and I had to find a substitute. Between that and the confusion of two brooders instead of one seemed to throw them into a tizzy. Bedtime was harder today, basically. There will probably be a higher incidence of pasty butt tomorrow. Sigh.

In the trenches

On By CarynIn chickens

Well, at least digging trenches, which is how I spent most of my day today. We had rain this weekend, so the ground was soft and easier to dig, so I dug as much as a I could. I think the trench around the coop and runs is deep enough to bury hardware cloth to deter digging predators. I hope so. I’m beat. My health tracker says that I burned 2,900 calories today.

Trench for hardware cloth around coop
Trench for hardware cloth around runs

And here is another chick video. 5 days old!

Chicken runs

On By CarynIn chickens

My husband and eldest worked together this weekend to get most of the framing up for the chicken runs!

Start of chicken runs

The chicks are doing well, and are eating out of the hanging feeders. We are having less incidences of pasty butt as well, hurray! My eldest is also encouraging them to perch on her fingers.

And here is a video of 4-day-old chicks! I put my phone down in the brooder. They like to peck the red record button.

Feeder trays

On By CarynIn chickens, Craft

My primary book reference “Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens” by Gail Damerow suggests putting feed on pieces of paper for days old chicks, then switching to a shallow tray once they have all figured out what to peck. I have some card stock I’ve been trying to get through (I thought I was ordering bright white, but what I ordered had rainbow flecks, ugh), so I used some of that to make simple little trays. The nice thing about the trays is they can be thrown away when they get poopy. But it will be even nicer when they eat just out of the hanging feeders. Any who, here is the video: