Getting Familiar!

Very exciting day! Today is the first day that the new chickens or our youngest chickens have run to see us when we come to see them.  They usually run and hid in the coop whenever we come near. They have finally learned to enjoy some treats instead of running from the worms as well. :)

As difficult as it made to do the water and the food today without them escaping, the feeling that the lovely ladies are getting comfortable and excited to see us is amazingly delightful!

Chicks First Day Outside

 Our new chicks are five weeks old, so they are getting close to outside living.  It is still chilly at nights, but the days have been quite warm.

Today, the chicks went outside for the first time.  The other four hens showed interest right away.  The chicks were quite wary.

However, the older girls lost interest soon.  The Speckled Sussex stayed interested for just a couple minutes more.

The pullets are sticking quite close to each other.  We will bring them into the house tonight.

Caring for Your New Chicks

When you get your chicks home from the post office or feed store, they will need you to provide water, food, and warmth. Your chicks will be thirsty!  As you place chicks into the brooder, dip each chick's beak into the water.  Make sure they drink.  They will tilt their little heads back and smack their beaks.  This makes sure they know how to drink, where to drink, and to drink.
 
After they have their first drink, set each chick next to your heat source.  If you have an Eco-Glow contact brooder, nudge their little behinds under it.  A contact brooder will allow the chicks to self-regulate their temperature and become used to the day-night cycle. If using a heat lamp, just set them down.  Be sure to use an infra-red lamp, secure the lamp very carefully to prevent it from falling and causing a fire, and be careful not to overheat the chicks.  Use a thermometer in the brooder at chick height.  They should be 95 degrees during their first week, 90 their second, 85, and so on.  Accomplish this by raising the heat lamp. 

Make sure the chicks have enough room and clean litter.  Give the chicks 1/2 a square foot each for the first two weeks and be prepared to increase this to 2 square feet per chick by the third week.  Use a few inches of pine shavings on the floor.  Do not use cedar; the fumes are harmful to the chicks.  Cover the shavings with paper towels for the first three days to prevent them from eating the shavings instead of their food.  Check the litter for damp spots a few times a day and remove the damp litter.  Change out large proportions of the litter daily. 

Use a feeder with little head-sized holes; this prevents them from scratching all of their food out onto the floor and into their litter.  On the first day in the brooder, sprinkle some of the feed onto the paper towels to encourage them to eat.  Place marbles or small rocks in their waterer.  Chicks will do anything -- including falling asleep in their water.  The marbles will help prevent drowning.  Make sure they never run out of food or clean water.  If you use a nipple waterer, make sure the water is away from the heat source.

Check the chicks’ bottoms every day for at least the first week and longer if you are having problems.  You are checking for pasty butt, a result of physiological stress.  Look for dried poop on their vent.  If you find dried poop, soak their little behind in warm water.  You can also use a warm wash cloth to loosen small bits of poop.  Just picking it off might pull their feathers and skin.  If your chicks have pasty butt, check to be  sure that their water has vitamins or vinegar  (1 tsp. per 1 gal.) and that the chicks have enough room and are not picking at each other.  Be careful not to confuse the dried remnants of their umbilical with poop; leave the bit of umbilical.  Their vents are higher up: Look down their back and then around their bottom, and the vent is the first opening you see.  You may also see a pink bump near the end of their spine.  That is their oil gland.

Also good to know:

• Do not cook with any nonstick cookware while chicks are in your house.  The fumes can kill them.


• Try never to brood a chick alone.  Try to get another chick from a farm store or another owner.  If you must brood alone, make sure to give the chick a lot of attention.  Also, put a stuffed animal into the brooder for it to cuddle for comfort.


• Chicks are ready to live outside when fully feathered, at about six weeks.  If it is warm during the day as well as the night, this can be sooner.  If you want to put them outside in the winter, run electricity to the coop and use a contact brooder in the coop (or heat lamp with extra fire precautions.)

from: scratchcradle.wordpress.com/ 

Chicks and the Nipple Waterer

I purchased two nipple waterers for the new chicks.  I love, love, love them!

The nipples screw onto a soda bottle.  I used a water holder for a hamster cage for one of the bottles, which has limitations of the same height in the brooder.  The other bottle hangs from wire attached to the bottom of the bottle.  I can adjust the height of this bottle. 

The chicks peck the nipples instinctively.  Both chicks drank from the nipples within five minutes.

Previously, I had used a traditional waterer.  The water was dirty within minutes after changing it.  There is no dirty water now.  Clean water means less work for me.  I like less work!

Pullets and Molting

Sunny looks pretty scraggly right now.

Our chicks are about three weeks old.  Their molting makes them look so funny!

Molting is the process of shedding and renewing feathers. During the molt, the reproductive physiology of the bird has a complete rest from laying and the bird builds up its body reserves of nutrients. The provision of new feathers or a coat (a feature inherent in most animals) is a natural process, designed by nature to maintain a bird's ability to escape enemies by flight and better protect against cold winter conditions. Under usual conditions, adult birds molt once a year. Some may molt twice in one year and, rarely, once in two years.
 
The chick goes through one complete and three partial molts during its growth to point of lay. Generally, complete molting occurs from 1-6 weeks of age, and partial molting at 7-9 weeks, 12-16 weeks and 20-22 weeks. During this final molt, the stiff tail feathers grow.

Mature birds normally undergo one complete molt a year. The three main factors that bring about molting are:

• physical exhaustion and fatigue
• completion of the laying cycle (as birds lay eggs for a certain period of time)
• reduction of the day length, resulting in reduced feeding time and consequent loss of body weight.

If a bird stops laying and molting, this means its physical condition is deteriorating and, therefore, cannot support egg production, continued nourishment of their feathers or body maintenance. Feathers contain protein and are more easily grown when laying ceases because of the difficulty in assimilating sufficient protein for both egg and feather production. During the molt, the fowl still needs a considerable amount of good quality food to replace feathers and build up condition.

The time at which a laying hen ceases production and goes into molt is a reliable guide as to whether or not the hen is a good egg producer. Poor producing hens moult early and take a long time to complete the process and resume laying i.e. they 'hang' in the moult and are out of production for six to seven months. Poor producers seldom cast more than a few feathers at a time and rarely show bare patches.

High-producing hens moult late and for a short period (no more than 12 weeks), and come back into production very quickly. Rapid moulting is seen not only in the wing feathers of good producers, but also in the loss of body feathers generally. Because of this, it is common to see a late and rapid moulting hen practically devoid of feathers and showing many bare patches over its body.

Source: http://www.qld.gov.au/ 

Sonny and Cher

Sunny and Cher are our two new Buff Orpington chicks.  Of course, we thought we were being so funny when we chose their names. 

However, Cher is keeping her namesake's reputation intact.  She sings long and loud and quite prettily.  She is loveable and likes attention.  She is very aptly named.  Sunny makes the pair complete; they are always close to each other.

Who knew?

My, They Grow Up So Fast!

Jakob was 15 months old when we got our first batch of chicks.  Those hens are now full grown.

Our two new hens are doubling their size every day.  Well, not really.  But it seems like it.

Jakob, now two years old, loves his chickies.  He stands by the brooder for hours, laughing and enjoying their antics.  Soon, we may even let him hold one of them.

Meet Sunny and Cher!

Our city ordinance allows six hens per backyard.  We have four hens, so we were able to get two more chicks today.  Enter Sunny and Cher!

We decided on two more Buff Orpingtons.  This gives us three Buff Orpingtons, one Black Austrolorp, and two Speckled Sussex.  What a great flock.

We just purchased bottle nipple waterers.  Tomorrow I will get a bottle hanger.  I hope it works because I hate how dirty the water gets.

Must be Autumn!

New flag and flag pole for the chickens! Thanks to Jean Rollwitz!

 

The new flag and pumpkins.  Must be fall.

Speaking of fall, notice that we have our very own Jack-o-Lantern!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are slowly eating the pumpkins.

The girls ate the seeds first and now are pecking away at the meat.

Winterizing The Coop

The roost, ramp and nesting boxes. The front needs to be attached.

The ramp is on hinges.  It can be brought up for closure.

Right now, there is a chicken wire front for air and viewing...

The new coop takes up none of their floor space.  Raised up 30", it is 4' by 8'. The girls should be cozy this winter!

Adam taking a break to ride Patrick's new birthday bike.  The seat might be a bit too low...

Happy Harvest!

We love harvesting every day!

We found another sign for the enclosure.  It is still in the brown, earthy tones.

We only have three of our chickens that are laying; the two blacks have not started laying yet.  We keep checking everyday!  We know that they still have until six months to start laying, but it seems like a long wait!  :-)

Aaron relaxing in front of the enclosure.

Chickens Not Too Sure About Enclosure

Standing around wondering why they are penned.

The chickens seemed confused when we put them in last night.  Normally, they are put in the coop and the coop door locked.

However, with the new enclosure, they did not know what to do with all the new space. It seemed too different for them.

They started pacing the perimeter, talking to us, and flying up onto the wire.  We decided that too much change is not good.

We locked them into the coop.  They immediately calmed down.  This morning, we let them out of the coop, but kept them in the enclosure.  We want them to feel safe within the enclosure.

We will see how they react tonight.  

Still checking out the new space.

They don't seem to know what to do.

Girls running back and forth.

The Girls Found Their New Perch

We strategically placed a couple of sawhorses in the yard -- in the shade and away from the fence line.

 

First snow

We let the chickens out after the May snow here in MT. They were much slower coming out of the coop this morning!  

Chicken time outside!

We got chicken chairs! Now we can all sit out and enjoy our time with the ladies! The boys love playing with them, the ladies kind of like playing with the boys lol.
The girls got Almost 2 hours out in the yard yesterday playing in the lilac bushes. They have not yet ventured far from the coop but each day explore a little further.

The Ladies Love Their Humans!

 Crystal on Aaron's shoulder

 Crystal and Aaron

 Yoda and Crystal

 Yoda and Sweetie

Sweetie often flies up to visit her humans.

 Lady and Sweetie love the tall perches.

 The even taller perches...

These two will compete for top of the pecking order.

3 weeks old

We cleaned and updated the brood box today. After being outside the chickens found rolling in the dirt to be enjoyable and so we added a mixture suitable for them to the box and a new perch that is larger! Along with an allotment of daily love! They let us know they want it by jumping out of the box to get it, too.
Lady seems to be moving her way up the pecking order lately, so much fun to watch their little personalities develop :)