Hi everyone.
Some of you may remember the couple posts I made several months back about my two chicks that I received by surprise from a local commercial meat chicken farm.
I'm so pleased with their progress so far that I just had to update!
My two chicks are now 5 months old, and so far doing wonderfully. They are a hen and rooster, named Greta and George.
There were a few scary spots when they were going through their big growth spurt from around 3 to 8 weeks, when their size more than doubled. They started panting during this growth spurt, so I tried something that may seem a little controversial, but it was either that, or let them die of a heart attack. Either way, I pretty much had nothing to lose. So I started crushing a quarter of an aspirin into their drinking water. It only took one day to notice a difference, and after a couple days the panting stopped completely. After four months, they have never panted since. Now I crush one daily low dose aspirin when I change their water every day, and they haven't shown any ill effects whatsoever.
They each get half a cup of 16% protein feed twice a day so they're both eating one cup in total. They go out in the yard for several hours everyday and scratch around and eat grass and bugs and dirt.
I can feel their keel bone, although there is still a bit too much meat, but they're nowhere near obese. They have strong straight legs and can run and walk and jump. They're still big heavy birds though, about 12 pounds.
They have the sweetest personalities, I can pet them, they sit on my lap, they follow me around during outside time and trust me completely. They're actually the most rewarding pets I've ever had.
This past Friday, Greta laid her first egg! She's given us six eggs since then, although two were soft shelled. I'm getting her some oyster shell tonight, and they've been eating layers pellets for about a month now.
George has yet to start crowing, and hasn't tried to mate with Greta yet.
So I know that they still won't live as long as they should, but right now they are healthy, and not too overweight, and happy.
Here's the chicks as adorable wee ones
Greta trying out her new nest box. She clucked and bustled in there for a long time!
George, my handsome sweet roostie
Greta's beautiful eggs!
Some of you may remember the couple posts I made several months back about my two chicks that I received by surprise from a local commercial meat chicken farm.
I'm so pleased with their progress so far that I just had to update!
My two chicks are now 5 months old, and so far doing wonderfully. They are a hen and rooster, named Greta and George.
There were a few scary spots when they were going through their big growth spurt from around 3 to 8 weeks, when their size more than doubled. They started panting during this growth spurt, so I tried something that may seem a little controversial, but it was either that, or let them die of a heart attack. Either way, I pretty much had nothing to lose. So I started crushing a quarter of an aspirin into their drinking water. It only took one day to notice a difference, and after a couple days the panting stopped completely. After four months, they have never panted since. Now I crush one daily low dose aspirin when I change their water every day, and they haven't shown any ill effects whatsoever.
They each get half a cup of 16% protein feed twice a day so they're both eating one cup in total. They go out in the yard for several hours everyday and scratch around and eat grass and bugs and dirt.
I can feel their keel bone, although there is still a bit too much meat, but they're nowhere near obese. They have strong straight legs and can run and walk and jump. They're still big heavy birds though, about 12 pounds.
They have the sweetest personalities, I can pet them, they sit on my lap, they follow me around during outside time and trust me completely. They're actually the most rewarding pets I've ever had.
This past Friday, Greta laid her first egg! She's given us six eggs since then, although two were soft shelled. I'm getting her some oyster shell tonight, and they've been eating layers pellets for about a month now.
George has yet to start crowing, and hasn't tried to mate with Greta yet.
So I know that they still won't live as long as they should, but right now they are healthy, and not too overweight, and happy.
Here's the chicks as adorable wee ones
Greta trying out her new nest box. She clucked and bustled in there for a long time!
George, my handsome sweet roostie
Greta's beautiful eggs!
