New chicks on order

I got an email yesterday from Ideal Poultry. My name came up on the waiting list for Barnevelders! Barnevelders are one of the breeds of chickens that lay dark, dark brown eggs. They're pretty rare, hence the waiting list.

I called Ideal today and placed my entire chick order with them:

• 15 Barnevelders
  
• 6 Easter Eggers (EEs)
  
• 15 Australorps (Aussies)
  
• 6 Silver-laced Wyandottes
  
• 6 Gold-laced Wyandottes
  
• 8 Red sex-link
  
• 5 Gold sex-link

They are scheduled to ship 5 March, so I'm hoping for an EARLY call from the post office on the morning of the 6th.

Himself plans to be building the chicken coop starting 20 March, when his classes let out. He assures me the work will go fast once it starts. He's going to scale it for 100 chickens, with two runs. That way everyone will still have space to stretch her wings and do all those other important chicken activities. And I'll be able to keep the new chicks separate from the adults.

Short term, we'll have the brooder cage on the back porch, which is still enclosed as a goat stall.

Sun on the feathers

Today we had an abnormally warm day, and I decided to take the chicks out to the front yard for a bit of sun.

This is not a matter of taking them out and letting them run free -- too many predators & too many chicks to chase.

So I had to rig up a holding pen for them. I have scrap lumber and hardware cloth. Himself prefers that we not use up material that could go toward the desperately needed hen house, so I'm trying not to cut or nail anything. I'd be shy about cutting anyway, since I avoid using his tools or getting into his workspace.

I succeeded in putting together a VERY rough pen with boards (some of them already nailed together), a plastic table on its side, a pitchfork, a weed bag... you get the picture. My wonderful neighbor, Butterfly Woman, helped me rig up the last of it and load in the chickens.

The pen had three sections for the three flocks, although I hoped to bring that down to two flocks by the end of the day. The Specs are three weeks old and fast outgrowing their tub brooder.

Here are some of the Ameraucanas stretching in the sunlight, while Speckled Sussex chicks watch the big girls through the wire. The Amers loved the sun -- they'd lay on their side and spread their feathers out to the sun, exposing as much skin as they could.

After a while, the Specs found a way around the barrier between the pens and started venturing into the section with the Amers. To our relief, they were mostly ignored by the big girls, except for Rachel who would fly at them with talons out. But she made no effort to actually hurt the chicks, even when she had one cornered. She just wanted to make sure they know who's boss. The Specs have always been so full of themselves, it's kind of nice to see them taken down a notch.

Here is a shot of Rachel, showing off her black cape. As chickens go, she looks a lot like an eagle.


We did have eagles out today: a huge bald eagle and a much smaller one, very high up. It looked like a flying lesson.

Another large bird -- eagle or large hawk -- came in closer, definately eyeing the chickens. Butterfly Woman saw it in the treetops of the yard and raised the alarm. As it flew close overhead we could see very distinctive markings on the underside of its wings. No pics of that one -- I was too busy getting a cover over the chicks. It watched as we spread out the linen we'd used an a shade cover and the hardware cloth we'd been using as a divider between the Specs and Amers. Then it waggled its tail at us and flew away.

The Aussie chicks got to get out too. Here they are resting in the sunlight.

Testing the predator-proof cage

I had the chicken cage on the back porch nicely screened with bubble wrap on 3 sides, but tonight when I went to tuck the girls in (i.e., toss a drop cloth over the remaining side) the bubble wrap was shredded. Raccoons, I'm sure. Tomorrow I put on a better latch, before they figure out how easy the makeshift one would be to open.

When we build the hen house it will be a fortress.

More peeps, and a quick calculation

Stopped by the Grange yesterday for a bag of chicken starter feed, and WOW -- they finally got some Australorps! There were two dates this spring when they were expected. I ran down to Grange early both times, and no Aussies. Now here they were.

Yes, of course I bought some. Five little fuzzy black & white ping-pong balls.


These girls are really sweet. They actually like to be held -- one was clinging to the neighbor girl when she tried to put it down. Docile is good, in chickens. The Speckled Sussex still run away and then fight to get free while you hold them; the Ameraucanas are somewhere in the middle.

The Aussies are notoriously heavy layers. I did a quick back of the envelope calculation and figured I'll get roughly 300 eggs per month once the whole flock starts laying. That's 14 pullets at present, unless I have mis-identified chicks. It would be nice to sell enough in the neighborhood & to friends that I don't need to do a farmers' market very often. I see many egg dishes in my future, too. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up wanting yet more chickens down the road, which will make matters better or worse, depending on how my egg marketing program goes.

I have all but the oldest chicks still in the house, where they can keep warm. I've read that chicks should NOT be kept in the house, and particularly not near food prep areas. Nonetheless, there mine are on the dining table, with a brooder light hanging from the chandelier. Well, Himself was adamant that they not be in the living room. Eventually they will all be outdoors, and I will miss their chatter. Chickens are all about their flock, and they talk to each other constantly, mostly with reassuring babble that comforts people too. With the youngsters, that babble is a quiet but constant peeping and chirping. It's really nice to wake up to.

Update on the waterers: The small one is IN USE, sitting on top of the Specs' brooder bin with the pegs poking through the hardware cloth. They love it. I had to rig up a cross-beam for the outdoor brooder, and then discovered that one of the peg holes in the bucket is leaking. I have it drying out now so I can re-seal it.

Keeping chicks supplied with water

My five little Ameraucanas are five weeks old already. As babies they were brown and black pretty little markings on their faces. Then their feathers came in and in one day their faces changed completely. They are now almost fully feathered in beautiful dark browns and russets, except for Rachel who turned white with black speckles. She has a snowy white breast and has just added a coal-black cape. Absolutely stunning.

We got them into an outdoor brooder last week. It's just hardware cloth over a sturdy frame, on the back porch, with clear plastic and moving blankets tossed over, but the girls were so happy to have some space to spread their wings. The plastic tub we used for the starter brooder was getting cramped. The new space even has a low roost, so they'll stop roosting on the feeding trough. However they still fill the trough with the wood shavings we give them for litter, and then it's "Where's the food?" I just dump the trough into the litter and let them scratch for it.

Meanwhile, the four Speckled Sussex chicks are a week and a half old. Amazingly, they are growing even faster than the Ameraucanas. Mind you, the afternoon of the day I brought the Amers home I called my neighbor and said, "I think they've grown already." Got a big laugh until she came over -- they really had. So for the Specks to grow faster is saying something. At one week they were able to fly out of the tub brooder, something the first batch couldn't do at three weeks. They are already showing little serrated combs (no combs yet on batch 1).

And they are more rambunctious. Specifically, they keep emptying their waterer. I'm pretty sure it's usually a matter of scratching the paper towels on the floor of the brooder into the waterer, so that all the water wicks out onto the bedding, but they've dumped the whole thing over a couple of times too. Either way it is a problem. Growing chicks need lots of water IN them, and dry bedding.

Water has been a problem for batch 1, too, although they never dumped it. They just pooped in it. I kept raising it on blocks -- ideally it is about level with their backs, easy to drink from but hard to poop in. When I switched them from paper to wood shavings, the waterer inevitably was filled with bedding no matter what the height, and the bedding just soaks up all the water.

What I really want for watering is what they call a nipple waterer. Water goes into a pipe or reservoir, and fittings hang down to a height the chicks or chickens can reach by stretching their necks up to it. A chicken pushes on a post in the middle of the fitting, which opens a valve, and water trickles down her throat. Chickens don't swallow; they need to stretch their necks up and let the water trickle down anyway. So nipple waterers are a natural for them, and the water never gets dirty or spilled.

Most nipple waterers are designed for commercial operations and are expensive. However there is a company in Scotland that has setups for backyard flocks (look here). I've got the kit, but it isn't set up yet. Eventually I'll have it in a bucket in the coop, but there isn't room for a bucket to hang over the birds in either brooder. We've been scrambling to find a temporary solution using the pieces from the kit.

Meanwhile, we've been trying to use the "ball bearing in a tube" systems that you find in the pet stores for hamsters, parakeets, etc. The chicks love them, but they peck at it so hard that they jam the ball up into the tube, cutting off the water supply. And since the water tube is coming down at an angle instead of overhead, they often miss most of the water -- and there we are with the wet bedding problem again.

So... Today's priority is to get the brooders set up with overhead nipple waterers.

Chickens, goats, and the beginnings of a blog

Why start a blog now? It began with an email I sent to a list of my friends, copied in part here:

Hey, everybody, this is to let you know that I have my very first batch of chickens -- 5 Ameraucana chicks (or probably just Easter Eggers) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameraucana -- that I picked up from the feed store last Wednesday. They are now about a week old and thriving in a plastic tub on my dining table. The cats are fascinated, which does not bother the chicks at all. I do try to discourage the cats from laying on top of the hardware cloth lid, especially if that means blocking the heat lamp. But so far I can take the lid off the tub and clean the cage or handle the chicks, and the cats just peer in. The babies have really grown since I got them. They are already getting little stubby tail feathers.

On the 23rd the Grange is expecting to get in Australorps (http://www.mypetchicken.com/Australorp-B14.aspx) and Speckled Sussex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_(chicken)), and I'm looking forward to getting a few of each, maybe a dozen chickens total. I figure the hassle factor is about the same for a dozen chickens as it is for a few, and I can sell some of the eggs.

Himself is very much on the hook to build a hen house and predator-proof run. He seems to find the chicken thing mildly amusing. And he was the one who wanted to live in the country after all.

Why chickens? I really don't know. My neighbor and I were talking about chickens & rabbits and such and I suddenly had an intense and persistent urge to keep chickens. I think it has to do with just having so much life around me. They've certainly revitalized me since they arrived. I'm getting a lot more done than I have for months. We'll set them up in the back yard, just across the bridge over the creek. I'd like to have a movable pen for them, too. Nothing quite like chickens to clear a garden bed, from what I hear. Not a weed nor a weed seed left.

On a separate note, the neighbors are renting 4 goats to clear out some blackberries and other weeds. Next week I'll have them over here to clear the back yard (including where the chicken coop will go). The goats don't clear out the roots like pigs would do, but they get everything but the big canes. And you don't have to find a place to dump the stuff that has been cleared -- the goats pellatize it all!

One of my friends, an accomplished blogger herself, suggested that I start a blog about my experiences with the chickens etc. So here it is.