Here's My Story
and
I'm Sticking to it!
and
I'm Sticking to it!
Once upon a time, nahhh...it goes like this - I got a wild hair, or was that a feather tickling me? I decided to go to a chicken class, with my sweet neighbor, because she had been talking for a couple years about getting some little fuzzy things! (At the time I wasn't sure what a Silkie was!) So, the bug bit me...she & I didn't talk for a few weeks and when I felt comfortable with the chicken knowledge I had gained (in a couple weeks! HarHar!) I went to the hatchery about 30 miles away. Ok, this is where the HarHar comes in...I let the girls that work there, "who know what they're doing", put a dozen bantams in a box and they tossed in 3 extra for good measure! Now, I had heard about getting a "straight run" and thought that with 15, the chances were pretty good that I'd get a roo or 2! HarHar!!! Now, being really new to this chick stuff, I made these adorable, precious, fluffy babies a nice little home in a brand new 91qt see-thru green plastic tub. This lovely tub lasted about 2 weeks, and did I mention that they were in our game room, complete with poker & pool tables?!? And, here in this wonderful game room (that we recently remodeled!) the cute little kids grew, for about 8 weeks. As did the depth of the dust! I was getting a little too stuffed up and soon I realized that here was a little tip that no one told me...never raise chicks in the house, unless in a room with a door i.e. spare bathroom! In this 8 week period, my sweet husband, with the patience of a saint, built a brooder, 2ftx4ftx2ft. This was awesome...for the chicks, room to move around, and run from their "momma". It became hard to catch and cuddle! :-( But I survived - for another couple weeks. Then that same brooder became 4ftx4ftx2ft, taking up 90% of the poker table space...this was not a terrible loss as the poker table had 3" of dust and the cards would have gotten lost!
And so, after surviving the dust for a couple weeks, they kids got their brooder-condo transfered to the garage! The kids weren't too thrilled and neither was Mom! I hated not being able to hear them and stop by to see them when i was walking thru the house...but when construction started on their coop, my little kids were right there with us! I have an x-pen, for a mischievious pomeranian, that we put the kids in, so they could supervise over the construction. We used a huge netover the top of the pen, so no one could escape and little watch dogs couldn't get in! I placed a long branch through the side holes so they could have a perch and I stuck a branch up through the middle that made it look like a circus tent! They needed stretching room, right? Each day we worked on the coop, (weather permitting for them,) we carried them out to the circus tent, and brought them back in when we were pooped! it was comical, but so much fun! The kids seemed to enjoy watching as their new home was being built...I think they really knew what was going on! About 45 days later, they got to move into their new home. We had rigged up the south end run, using parts of a hand-me-down dog run and the huge net we used on the "circus tent" to cover it. Pop doors and poop door were all in place, nest box was to come along later, as no one was ready to start laying yet anyway! Oh my, I don't think I imagined it, but I really thought I saw them smile when we brought them - officially - into their new coop! It only took a few days of staying in the run & coop before we opened the run door to introduce them to the wide open spaces of their back yard! They were timid for just a short while then each day they explored a little further.
TBC
And so, after surviving the dust for a couple weeks, they kids got their brooder-condo transfered to the garage! The kids weren't too thrilled and neither was Mom! I hated not being able to hear them and stop by to see them when i was walking thru the house...but when construction started on their coop, my little kids were right there with us! I have an x-pen, for a mischievious pomeranian, that we put the kids in, so they could supervise over the construction. We used a huge netover the top of the pen, so no one could escape and little watch dogs couldn't get in! I placed a long branch through the side holes so they could have a perch and I stuck a branch up through the middle that made it look like a circus tent! They needed stretching room, right? Each day we worked on the coop, (weather permitting for them,) we carried them out to the circus tent, and brought them back in when we were pooped! it was comical, but so much fun! The kids seemed to enjoy watching as their new home was being built...I think they really knew what was going on! About 45 days later, they got to move into their new home. We had rigged up the south end run, using parts of a hand-me-down dog run and the huge net we used on the "circus tent" to cover it. Pop doors and poop door were all in place, nest box was to come along later, as no one was ready to start laying yet anyway! Oh my, I don't think I imagined it, but I really thought I saw them smile when we brought them - officially - into their new coop! It only took a few days of staying in the run & coop before we opened the run door to introduce them to the wide open spaces of their back yard! They were timid for just a short while then each day they explored a little further.
TBC