Week 6

Week 6 with the chicks was eventful! The girls went outside for good on Sunday July 12th, which was the same day I was having my grad party. So at around 10 AM that morning I unscrewed the back piece off of my run, and attached the run to the hen house with screws (I had to run to the hardware store to get longer screws, unfortunately, but I stopped for fresh bagels on my way! Yum!). After this, I filled the hen house with pine shavings, and brought the chicks out with the help of a good friend and my boyfriend. The girls avoided the house for the most part, but cheerily pranced around on the grass all day. Come nighttime, the chicks were all still huddled in a corner of the run. So one by one, I placed the reluctant chicks in their new home and said goodnight. That was the only night I had to put the girls away physically...every night since then, the girls have gravitated to their home once it started to get dark (7ish) and I've closed and locked the door soon after (8ish). Today is Thursday and the chicks have eaten and/ or trampled on and/or pooped on every inch the 15 sq-ft run has to offer. I'm thinking of rotating my attached coop/hen house each week until I construct a larger run; although, moving the structure is pretty much a 3 person job. I'll do my best and learn as I go! Right now I'm reading the book, Dirty Chick, by Antonia Murphy, and I'm loving it. Antonia shares her own personal, unconventional, and hilarious farming experience.

Week 5

Week 5 with the chicks was fun in the sun. The girls have been outside some more, and they have tried several fruits and veggies now--their current favorites being strawberries and lettuce. I like to lay out a blanket and read or paint my toes alongside the girls while they dig, forage, and play in their run for a few hours. I have switched their original feed out for an organic grower's crumble. I bought a 50 lb bag of it at Blue Seal, and the girls seem to like it. The simple difference between a grower's crumble and a layer's crumble is that grower's crumble is fed to young, growing chickens that have yet to lay eggs. Chicken raisers are supposed to switch out their chickens' grower feed for layer feed at the sight of the first egg. Now that I have introduced the girls to their run outside, they're all a bit stir crazy once I take them back inside in their smaller cage. Luckily, they will be six weeks old this Wednesday and I plan to permanently put them outside in their coop this Wednesday or Thursday.

Excitingly, yesterday I heard the first "cluck" from one of the girls! They are growing so fast that they're close to retiring the "chirp" I guess! This morning I finished painting their heart-shaped sign that I will hang on the front of their coop for all who visit to see. It reads, "Laid with Love," which I figured was cute and appropriate.

I'm happy to say that all of my chicks seem to be healthy. I was nervous about the runt, Nugget, who seemed to sleep a lot more than the other chicks in her earlier weeks of life, and had pasty butt. For those of you who don't know, pasty butt is when the chickens' waste stays stuck to their hind feathers, and turns into a large, hard-to-remove chunk. I tried to gently remove the chunk when Nugget was really small by wiggling it back and forth with a warm, wet paper towel...but it wouldn't budge. If this happens to one of your chicks, DO NOT simply yank the chunk off! What I did which worked for me was monitor the chick to make sure she was still able to 'go #2' every day, and when she was about 3-4 weeks old I removed it with a little stronger of a pull back and forth. It came off and it hasn't happened to her since.

Week 4

Tomorrow, Saturday June 27th, marks exactly four weeks, one month, and countless laughs with my six chicks! Wednesday my disassembled coop and run were delivered to my house, and yesterday my boyfriend, John, and I (well mostly John) put it all together! Unfortunately my run did not come with screws like I thought it would, so John and I ran to the local hardware store to pick up screws and a small electric drill...easy fix. We brought a piece of the run with us so that someone at the hardware store could best advise us on a screw that would not split the wood, which I recommend. I also recommend assembling your coop and run with galvanized screws, which simply means the screws are weatherproof and will not rust. 

Putting together the run took under an hour...after all, the run was made up of only 7 pieces: the front/door piece, 2 pieces for each side (4 total), a top piece, and the back piece. The eighth imaginary piece that completes this shape is the ground! The coop is 15 sq-ft, which is about half the size I eventually need once the girls are full grown. In other words, to live a happy and healthy outdoor life, each chicken needs 5 sq-ft to roam. Since I have 6 birds this is 6 x 5 = 30 sq-ft. I plan to build a larger run out of chicken wire and stakes later in the summer. After this was all done, we brought the chicks out to play in it!!! The chicks were a lot more hesitant than I expected, each of them was afraid to go on the grass...but it was the cutest thing. I opened up their current guinea pig cage door, and matched it up with the door of the run, so that they could easily fly from one to the other, but none of them budged. So what did I do? My 5'5" self hopped into the 5' long coop and laid down all curled up in the grass and the girls came to mama. It was funny to watch them all fly to me (literally fly onto my arms and legs) to avoid the grass. Eventually, after a half hour the girls were all on the grass exploring and loving it. So I crept out of the run and went to go help John put together the coop. 

The coop probably took 2 hours total--a lot quicker than I had expected. The coop is made to fit 6-10 chickens, but I think my coop is perfect for 6 chickens...if it were any smaller I'd want a larger one. For those of you who aren't sure how big to buy/make your coop (the actual indoor roost), each bird should have 2-3 sq-ft. The thing that attracted me to this coop was the fact that it contained 6 nesting boxes! Normally one nesting box is good for 2-3 chickens, but now all of my girls have their own (who knows if they will actually use all 6 or have a favorite 1 or 2)! I was so excited once the coop was finished being put together, and I carefully moved it to a spot in my backyard that was...

A) far away from my neighbors on both sides of my property (if you have a rooster, which I don't, this is especially important because of the noise he will be making daily)

B) a place that received plentiful shade AND sun daily 

C) a place where I could see the chickens from my back porch/back windows

I didn't have the girls explore their coop just yet. I want to let them grow for two more weeks (they'll be 6 weeks old then) and enjoy their run for now. Feel free to comment on any/all of my posts!

Love, 

Kayla & her Six Hot Chicks :)

P.S.--A lot of my information comes from a reputable source, Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry, by Glenn Drowns.

Week 3

I must say, this week the chicks REALLY shot up--right before my eyes! The girls definitely experienced a growth spurt, and their wings, legs, heads--everything is bigger! I'm excited to say that the cuckoo maran chicks' combs are growing in, and the araucaunas' neck feathers (beards) are becoming more prevalent, too. All six chicks are standing 6-inches-tall and love coming out of their cage to play (they especially enjoy flying up and sitting atop their feeder, too). The chicks have moved onto eating crumble, since they have finished all of their ground starter feed. The girls go through food very fast the bigger and bigger they get; today I plan to buy a 50 lb organic crumble so that I am ready when their current crumble is devoured. I plan to mix my own feed for the chicks once they are a little bit older and I'm a little less worried about them getting all of their vitamins and minerals...I just need to find reasonably priced grains sold in bulk. After doing some reading and research, I plan to make the feed by combining whole corn, barley, split peas, and wheat or oats. Excitingly, my dad ordered me a chicken coop for my chicks as a graduation present which will be delivered any day now. The coop has 6 nesting boxes and a 15-square foot run. Again, once the chicks are larger, I plan to build a larger run later in the summer. I think I will take the chicks outside this week to play since they are almost 4 weeks old...I know they will LOVE the grass and bugs. Stay tuned as my six hot chicks keep growing!

Week 2

Week two with the chicks was a blast. Each chick is starting to show her own unique personality, and I think myself, my friends, and my family have all decided on names: Gizmo, Miss Ellie, Ariel, Nugget, Lisa Jean, and Rocket. I've moved the chicks into a larger cage because they are getting quite good at flying (gliding), and I've learned to elevate their waterer and feeder so that they do not get pine shavings in either one. Gizmo is the most outgoing bird right now--she will sleep on my lap for over an hour if I take her out at nighttime (or anytime really). Rocket likes to fly out of the cage when I open up its side door, too. I've been debating whether or not to build or buy a chicken coop...we'll see what I decide.

Day 1

Today was day one as a Mother Hen! I picked up my 6 chicks at The Natural Pet Center in Gardiner after having an awesome morning shopping spree and breakfast break in New Paltz. My best friend Sam drove the two of us to the pet store since I was still really sore from my wisdom teeth removal...plus, she knew I would be too excited to drive home with the little birdies in the car! We came home with 6 chicks as I said--3 Araucana and 3 Cuckoo Maran. The aracaunas include 2 blonde colored chicks and a brown one, and all 3 marans are black with a white fuzzy circle atop their little heads. All of the chicks were excited to be in their new home--a cozy storage container heated to a tropical vacation temperature--90 degrees F. I will decrease this temperate by 5 degrees with each week that goes by. All of the chicks are really sleepy from the drive home, and from only being 3 days old. All of the girls were born on Wednesday May 27th.