May 2010

Five Weeks Old

A lot of changes have been going on.

Everyone has almost all their feathers now.  I'm noticing a distinct difference between the two sexes.  I've actually been noticing it all along but now it's becoming clearer to me.  Things which told the difference when they were little, but since I didn't know anything about the differences I've just been watching.  So I'm going to point out some of these differences here in these pictures.

The one on the left has a long full feathered tail and it's comb is still unformed.  The one on the right has almost no tail or very short but it's comb is already forming.  I'll find a better picture of both.

The one on the left I'm assuming is a little hen.  The one in front on the right a little rooster.  The ones I'm assuming are hens have full feathered bodies and tails but the roosters seem to have been putting there energy into growing the comb and wattles.

The picture on the right shows more feathers and tail.  The one on the right much less feathers and barely any tail but a comb already becoming obvious.  These two pictures taken at three weeks old.

Chickens are getting so big.  I love how my husband keeps working on the coop and anything else involving chickens, instead of mowing and other stuff he normally does.  I'm thinking he really likes the chickens.

Here's some more pictures at 5 weeks old.

Ok, so that's not chickens, that's our cat George.  He had a couple of encounters with the electronet so now he's resigned to watching from the playcenter.

Picture on the right shows how they are all wearing bloomers.

Six Weeks Old

They are taking care of the grass and weeds. 

Look how big the buckeye is!  Here is a little gazebo to shelter the water from the hot sun.  Ever since we built it we haven't had any "hot" sun.  That is what happens.

very curious about the camera

Beautiful at six weeks.  Mark made a roof over the doorway to help the door not swell so much with the rain.  We have had mostly rain.  The chickens don't seem to mind if it rains, they just love being outside.

Indoors, roosting and napping.  Curious again about the camera.  They love the attention.  If they only knew that I was writing about them and that there pictures were all over the internet.  They would be so proud.  They might be too proud and expect diva treatment.

Oh, wait, they already do expect diva treatment.  The first night I removed the heatlamp they made such a fuss, I put a regular red light bulb up.  They were OK that night.  But since then they have made a huge fuss everynight about
the heatlamp being gone.

I had to rearrange some things in the coop because they decided to sleep in the corner.  Problem was the corner was only big enough for one and everyone was piling in.  I moved the feed cans next to the big door and made a corner big enough for everyone. 

I started giving scraps to them.  Not too many at first, but they love the scraps so much that everytime I head back there they all come running, prepared to fight for whatever I throw over the fence.  I am careful not to give them any heavily salted food as I did read that too much salt can make them sick.  I gave them some cooked pork scraps. I was just curious.  Lasted in the pen about 3 seconds.



 Seven Weeks Old
I haven't been able to get any pictures yet this week because it won't stop raining.  The chickens don't care but I have to be careful not to let the coop shavings get too damp.  They have gotten used to the regular light bulb now.  It gets dark at nine o'clock now and so I go out about 8 - 8:30 and close the windows in the coop, fluff up the bedding, check the water and spend a little time with them.  Then I go back to the house to take care of things there and at nine o'clock I go out to the coop again and everyone is inside and in their corner.  That's when I shut the little door.

Eight Weeks Old

My babies are getting so big.  They are about halfway to the maturity age.  On the left is a picture of my buckeye hen.  I am guessing that because there is no comb growing yet and her tail is showing some black on the tips but not so dark as some of the others.  On the right is a little roo posing for the camera.
A buckeye rooster on the left, see his comb growing, he is darker in color and has lots of fluffy tail feathers.  On the right a little hen checking out the camera.

A cockerelle on the left again a pullet on the right.  (I think those are the correct terms)  They get excited when I come out to see them and pose for me.

Guys can get so serious.  Doing the stare down.  On the right a rich green color in the tail feathers.

Taking a stroll, a cockerelle. And a pullet foraging.  They are filling out nicely and the cockerelles seem to have caught up in size with the pullets. 

Notice the red string.  On Friday I saw a hawk swoop down and try to get one of my chickens.  The chicken flew threw the netting and the hawk got caught in it just for a minute.  It got away ok and the chickens huddled squawking in the coop.  They were extremely anxious.  The one who went through the fence, flew back through and on into the coop.  I didn't see it do that because I was watching the hawk who was sitting up in the tree.  It didn't have a chicken and I didn't see any chickens wandering around.  They didn't come out of the coop again until I finished tying red string (it is actually knitting yarn) across the yard.  Then they all relaxed and ran out and all over.  As if they felt safer with the string.  I'm not even sure it works but it made them feel better and I haven't seen any more hawks.  Yesterday we opened up a wall in the coop and covered it with rabit hutch wire.  Half inch squares.  Now I don't have to close the little window at night because it is gone.  It had only mosquito netting on it and I didn't feel safe leaving it open.  The opening should allow the breeze to flow better through the coop.  It was getting very hot in there and I felt that the chickens little lungs were in jepardy during the day.  Soon Mark will make a wooden door with the same kind of screen - rabbit hutch wire.  The mosquito netting gets closed up quickly with chicken dust and needs to be closed at night even though it is warm enough to be left open.  A racoon could quickly tear through this kind of netting.  Yesterday the air in the coop had gotten very hot, over 90 degrees and stale.  I made a shelter from the heat outside for them and put food in it and closed the coop door to keep them out of it until Mark came home and could help make the open side.  (help !!!!!, actually he did the job and I helped him, lol)

Food, Inc., how it all began

http://milledrive.com/videos/29660/Food_Inc._2009_Documentary.html

Chicken Coop Days

Today we will build a chicken coop. It will probably take the whole weekend, seeing that Mark has to work this morning, Saturday. I'm looking forward to the actual work beginning on it.
Saturday, April 17th, the actual work began.



It was a very exciting day for me, seeing Mark, his dad and his friends building a coop for my chickens.  He went all out, new lumber, brand new screen door and a window.  He put a white plastic (not correct word) roof on it to let light in.  This makes it get very warm in the coop and he closed it up pretty tight too. 

The front.

Back view of the little window.

the white roof

So I would like to cut out the top section of the back and a section of the front and cover it with chicken wire and screen.  Then I would like to use the cut out peices to make a flap which closes either up or down to keep open unless the weather is really bad.  I still have to talk my husband into doing that as it goes against everything chicken in him.  Bottom line is that at 65 degrees outside the inside of the coop with screen door open and little window open was 80 degrees.  It is still early enough in the spring and the birds are only three weeks old so I'm thinking I still have some time to get this modified.

I had noticed a week ago that some of my chickens had blue legs, but nothing appears to be wrong with them otherwise.  The first time I noticed this my thought was that maybe it's a symptom of some chicken sickness, lol, but it isn't.  What it is, is that these are not purebred.  There is another breed still lingering and evidence is showing in the leg color.
White Plymouth Rocks have yellow legs.  Some of the chicks have blue patches on there legs but this one is nearly completely blue.  I checked pictures of other breeds and the only white chicken I found with a grayish blue leg is the White Orpington.  A novice or someone not up on the different breeds might think they are the same kind of chicken, afterall they are both white.  Some people categorize chickens like this, white chickens, brown chickens, black, spotted, old fashioned looking multicolored, small, funny looking, or tiny chickens.  Others may categorize them by meat chickens, egg chickens, -do you really eat brown chickens? I thought you would only eat the white ones? etc.,  You may even think that brown chickens lay brown eggs and white chickens lay white eggs.  My dad thinks that you have to keep a rooster to have good eggs.  Funny stuff we people think.  Anyway, back to the blue legged chicken in my coop, the White Orpington is also a large white chicken, lays lots of eggs and tastes good too.  It does look different from a White Plymouth Rock though, if you pay attention.  I will purchase the chicken standard and have a good look at the differences.  Maybe I'll find a different chicken in there with blue legs so I'll talk more about that after I research more.

The day I decided to move the chickens was not a day too soon.  I was busy getting the coop prepared for them.  First I had to haul all the tools out of there.  Then I had to arrange my stuff.  I have two galvanized garbage pails to hold feed and stuff I don't want them getting into.  I had to screw a nail to hang the feeder on and find a concrete block to set the waterer on.  Next I spread a bail and a half of shavings over the floor and filled and hung the feeder.  I filled the waterer and placed it in there.  I was nervous about the waterer.  It is the kind that has a removable lid with a plug for keeping water in when you have to add new.  I didn't trust it but decided to go with it and just watch what it does.  When I was done, the place smelled like fresh wood and not a bit chickeny.  Fortunately that would change.  Anyway, everytime I went back to the house chickens were running loose.  I would catch them and put them back only for two or more to fly out.  Finally I decided to just let them be and hurry up to get the coop ready.

Chloe helped me move the chickens.  We were both excited.  I had a box to put a few chickens in at a time and Chloe held the flaps closed while I caught chickens.  We only put four in at a time so this was a great time to count them.  We discovered one extra of the White Plymouth Rocks.  Cool.

Here are some pictures I took of them after we got them all moved.

Checking it out.
Trying out the new roost.
The new hanging feeder was awesome.  Once they were all in there I adjusted it to the right height for them.  I can adjust it weekly as they grow.  They still jump inside but I've fixed that problem now.

The waterer was a little high for the smaller ones but the block sticks out a little for them to stand on.  Otherwise this is working perfectly for them as it stays much cleaner.
There's Chloe, in her ballet skirt.

Doing the chicken dance.
I used the old feeder bottom, which they broke, for grit.  Here's one sitting in it.  It is familiar to them in a brand new environment.

Curious about my boots.

Unfortunately the new waterer was leaking.  Fortunately I had bought two of them.  So I traded them and the second new one doesn't leak.  After they had settled in I brought in the litter from the brooder and mixed it in with the new litter.  They seemed to like that as it's smell was much more familiar than the brand new stuff.  The old litter was completey dry as I had expected it to be.  It does amaze me anyway, that's why I'm writing it in here.  That night after work, Mark made a little door in the side of the coop with a sliding closer.  We also put up the electronet fence.  It was really easy to set up.  The ground around the coop was uneven from the building process.  We stood there looking at the fence all set up when who should come walking through the yard, George, our cat.  The fence was completely blocking his rythem as it went right over his usual path.  He was perturbed and stumped.  I told Mark that we get to see right away what will happen.  We had plugged the fence in to make sure it was working correctly.  George walked up to it and touched it with his nose but didn't get a shock.  He moved down the fence toward the coop where the ground was uneven and slipped underneath it.  "Ok,"  I said, "that works well."  He crossed the little yard and slipped out under the otherside.  Mark picked him up and touched his nose to the fence long enough for him to get a shock.  He didn't like it at all.  I actually didn't see him again until late the next morning.  He was hungry.

I opened the little door to let the chickens out in the afternoon on Wednesday, 21st.

They were really curious to say the least, but not enough to venture out.

It just took one to get it started.

Very curious.

Hanging out on the ramp.

Finally I kicked them all out.  They pretty much just stayed right around the ramp.  A few of them tried to get out through the fence.  It was a busy time for me running back and forth all 160 feet of electric fence to pick them up.  They decided they weren't too thrilled by the zap zap of the electric fence and pretty much stay away from the fence now.  Because I had kicked them out by picking them up and throwing them out the door, they really didn't get how to get back in.  I ended up catching them and putting them in.  A few of them had figured it out for themselves.  I won't do that again.  I will, and I promise, let nature do it's thing.  We realized that the ramp was too slippery so we put a different rougher board on top of the 2 x 8.  They don't slip on it and run up and down it like crazy.  For 2 weeks I've been opening the door in the mornings and closing it at dusk.  They pile out immediately when I open it.  All day the run in and out in spurts.  Everybody out, everybody in.  It is cute to watch.  They don't seem to care whether it's raining or sunny, warm or cold.  At first they stayed close to the door but gradually over the two weeks they have wandered further and further.  I still turn the heat lamp on at night for them.