Faverolles have five toes on each foot. I have twelve chicks. I did not do the math when I decided to clip their sharp little nails. I did not manage to clip every nail (I was going to file, but the nails are still so little and the toes are kind of floppy), but I did manage to only expose one quick. 1 out of 120 is not bad. I quickly (#punintentional) put some “no-pick” purple goo on it and the chick was fine. And all of them have at least been exposed to the process. Phew.
The chicks enjoyed their second time outside even more than the first! And they were even more excited about the grass and dirt I put in their inside area; not afraid of it at all, quite the opposite.
They are also exploring the perch, so I made them another one using some 2x4s.
What a big day! We decided the best way to give the chicks a bigger enclosure was to line the old dog cage with chicken wire. We put pine shavings down inside and moved them in during the morning. They seem to appreciate the larger space. We rigged some scrap 2×4 together and hung it from the rafters and added metal eyes to hang the water and food jars in the new space. We had to adjust the height a bit, but it seems to work without too much swinging.
The chicks also had their first outside time. They seemed to enjoy running on the dirt and picking at leaves. We did another step for training our dog and had him lay down by the cage while the chicks moved around.
He could see them this time, but he did well not freaking out. And we protected the chicks from our outside cat, who thought she was going to get a snack!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Critters and Craft 