So, about three weeks ago, my mum's baby chicks arrived a week ahead of schedule. As her dutiful daughter, I raced across town to adopt the little buggers. And since my mother is employed and I currently am not, I am keeping the fuzzy little torpedoes until they're ready to be transitioned to their coop.
Unfortunately, two of the original six didn't fare well from shipping and passed away (warm and loved in my lap, being nurtured with sugar water and such). I want to take a moment to express thanks to everyone here who helped me with advice and good luck and well wishes for those poor babies. Two more nearly passed, but my roommate's girlfriend is an ER LVT (thank goodness) and helped with great advice and care and now we have four insanely cute (and naughty!) chicks.
Fortunately, we found an inner-city farm supply that had recently gotten chicks (also vaccinated), and they were only 5 days older than our own, so we took two home to join the flock.
A note: I have never owned chickens, though my mother kept some when we lived in New Mexico on ten acres (I was in Alaska, at university). However, it's a much different climate (and goodness, coyotes!), and a much different way of life than here in intercity-Seattle. With not much to go on and my mother unreachable on her vacation in the wilderness, I converted my old (passed away) Bearded Dragon's tank into a nursery, with a 250w heat lamp, pine shavings, feeder, waterer, and an old half-log with bark-on that they love to sleep on.
The chicks are now about three weeks old, with the two new additions going on four weeks. They've long started to lose the fuzz and all of their wing feathers are grown in, or almost grown in. The two four weekers and two of the three weekers have tail feathers also making an appearance, as well as random other places (specifically, I've noticed, the tops of their shoulders, where the wing connects with the back).
I have no official training, but I spent my young and adult life fostering and training abused and stray dogs. I only have one (a rescue) at the moment, a little miniature pinscher mix, who at first was MUST SQUEAK NEW LIVE SQUEAKY TOYS and is now, after only a week of training with his mommy, all MUST RESPECT BABY CHICKENS, AS THEY ARE TECHNICALLY TINY VELOCIRAPTORS. All I had to do was give him some limited "chicken time" every day, and now he's partly just curious and mostly just terrified of them (apparently, he's watched Jurassic Park too many times). He doesn't even try to eat their poop, for which I am most thankful for.
The Ancona (code name: Velociraptor Prime) investigating her prey:
Unrelated: dog now refuses to go near chickens without camouflage. I kid you not. I did not put the blanket on him; he went and got it himself, crawled under it, and thinks they can't see him while he's hiding and only then will venture close enough to sniff:
Clearly, the Orpington is on to him.
They all have their own personalities (there's one we nick-named "Brat" because, well, she's a brat. She doesn't so much "pick on" the others, just seems to think she can walk over and/or bulldoze her way wherever she wants, which results in lots of indignant peeping). But in the course of these few weeks and with the looming time of coop-transition coming up, I wanted to ask a few silly-new-person questions. I did a little looking in the forums to see if they'd been answered before, but every case seems very specific, so hopefully this isn't too irritating.
First, I'd like to introduce you to our girls:
From left to right and bottom to top: Barred Rock, Ancona, Easter Egger, Speckled Sussex, White Rock, and Buff Orpington
That pic is from the weekend, when I took the kids to my mum's yard where they'll be living. They got to forage around for an hour and really seemed to enjoy themselves. Anyway, on with the questions:
1) At three-four weeks old, I notice they are beginning to roost. I had the lid (screen) of the tank off to do food and water maintenance, and noticed the Barred Rock had perched on the edge and taken up the corner and gone to sleep. Shortly thereafter, the Easter Egger and Ancona followed. The Oprington has tried, but unfortunately his wing feathers are the most underdeveloped and he can't quite flutter up there. I've taken to leaving the cage top off, and allowing them to sleep there. They seem content, and don't even try to leave the tank (after all, the food's in there). My concern is this: is this them trying to tell me they need more space? That they're ready to go outside? As you can see in the pic, they still have at least half their fluff, but as I don't have a lot of options, the most I could do is set up a separate nursery and put half in one, half in the other... but I hate to separate the flock. I can leave the tank lid off all day and night and they don't budge outside it, just sit on the edge, and I've even rigged a branch (securely) to the top of the tank, and they seem to like that even better. They hop down to eat, drink, and run around when they want, and then hop back up to sleep. So usually, there's three up top and three down bottom. Rather than set up a separate area, is this enough to give them some extra room?
2) Coop transition. For those that missed it, I live in Seattle. Now with September upcoming, there's no rain or overcast yet (it usually shows up early to mid-October, and by then they should all be in the coop), but while the days are sunny and very warm, the nights get very chilly. I was told by our farm-supply guy that he recommends them going outside full-time around 6 weeks, assuming they've all grown in their feathers... does that sound right, considering the climate, here? And once we do the transition, I've heard you should lock them in for a while, but does that mean lock them IN the coop 24/7, or just at night, or just for most of the day with a few hours outside to forage and work out some energy?
3) Sneezing! So, the other day, while roosting on the edge of the tank, my Barred Rock sneezed on me. I definitely felt some "discharge" hit my hand (which I immediately washed), but she only did it one more time. The next day, the Easter Egger did the same thing to my roommate. Now, they're not sneezing enough we've noticed it again, but I've seen some scary posts about infections and wanted to make sure. I mean, I assume they have nasal lubrication of some kind, so if it's a dusty sneeze, it's normal if some "boogers" come out with it, but wanted to make sure.
4) Grit. When I got the laundry list of supplies from the farm supply, I got chick feed as well as grit. We needed to grind up the chick feed for the first week, but after that, they seem to be eating it just fine. I got some grit and mixed it in per instruction from farm-supply guy, but now that the chicks are growing I'm wondering how much good it's doing. The chick feed is fairly chunky compared to the grit, which is almost powder-like in texture. Do I need to upgrade to something closer consistency to the feed, or is this powderish grit exactly what they need?
5) Dogs. While I am quite capable of training my dog, I also am blessed with an exceptionally astute one who responds very well to my training techniques. However, my mum's neighbor has a dog that (while ADORABLE and super-friendly to dogs and humans alike) thinks that chickens are for chasing and eating. They have had us dog-sit on multiple occasions and while we love having her (she's good for our lazy dog), since I can't spend every moment of every day training her, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on training a dog to calm down around the chickens. I mean, it's not like we plan to let her at them, but I'd hate to say we can't dogsit because she'd be harassing the birds all day. They have their own fenced enclosure inside the yard around the coop, but we can't have her attacking the fence/barking/going batshit crazy at them, either. I'm hoping when they're full grown (and, at that time, 1/2 her size so not so meek-looking), she'll calm down, but any advice would be welcome
I'm just worried that since they're used to my dog they have no fear of them whatsoever, and I don't want anyone getting hurt.
Thank you all so much for your help and support! I hope you enjoyed the story and pictures, and can't wait to hear your advice. As a parting gift, I give you cuteness:
Unfortunately, two of the original six didn't fare well from shipping and passed away (warm and loved in my lap, being nurtured with sugar water and such). I want to take a moment to express thanks to everyone here who helped me with advice and good luck and well wishes for those poor babies. Two more nearly passed, but my roommate's girlfriend is an ER LVT (thank goodness) and helped with great advice and care and now we have four insanely cute (and naughty!) chicks.
Fortunately, we found an inner-city farm supply that had recently gotten chicks (also vaccinated), and they were only 5 days older than our own, so we took two home to join the flock.
A note: I have never owned chickens, though my mother kept some when we lived in New Mexico on ten acres (I was in Alaska, at university). However, it's a much different climate (and goodness, coyotes!), and a much different way of life than here in intercity-Seattle. With not much to go on and my mother unreachable on her vacation in the wilderness, I converted my old (passed away) Bearded Dragon's tank into a nursery, with a 250w heat lamp, pine shavings, feeder, waterer, and an old half-log with bark-on that they love to sleep on.
The chicks are now about three weeks old, with the two new additions going on four weeks. They've long started to lose the fuzz and all of their wing feathers are grown in, or almost grown in. The two four weekers and two of the three weekers have tail feathers also making an appearance, as well as random other places (specifically, I've noticed, the tops of their shoulders, where the wing connects with the back).
I have no official training, but I spent my young and adult life fostering and training abused and stray dogs. I only have one (a rescue) at the moment, a little miniature pinscher mix, who at first was MUST SQUEAK NEW LIVE SQUEAKY TOYS and is now, after only a week of training with his mommy, all MUST RESPECT BABY CHICKENS, AS THEY ARE TECHNICALLY TINY VELOCIRAPTORS. All I had to do was give him some limited "chicken time" every day, and now he's partly just curious and mostly just terrified of them (apparently, he's watched Jurassic Park too many times). He doesn't even try to eat their poop, for which I am most thankful for.
The Ancona (code name: Velociraptor Prime) investigating her prey:
Unrelated: dog now refuses to go near chickens without camouflage. I kid you not. I did not put the blanket on him; he went and got it himself, crawled under it, and thinks they can't see him while he's hiding and only then will venture close enough to sniff:
Clearly, the Orpington is on to him.
They all have their own personalities (there's one we nick-named "Brat" because, well, she's a brat. She doesn't so much "pick on" the others, just seems to think she can walk over and/or bulldoze her way wherever she wants, which results in lots of indignant peeping). But in the course of these few weeks and with the looming time of coop-transition coming up, I wanted to ask a few silly-new-person questions. I did a little looking in the forums to see if they'd been answered before, but every case seems very specific, so hopefully this isn't too irritating.
First, I'd like to introduce you to our girls:
From left to right and bottom to top: Barred Rock, Ancona, Easter Egger, Speckled Sussex, White Rock, and Buff Orpington
That pic is from the weekend, when I took the kids to my mum's yard where they'll be living. They got to forage around for an hour and really seemed to enjoy themselves. Anyway, on with the questions:
1) At three-four weeks old, I notice they are beginning to roost. I had the lid (screen) of the tank off to do food and water maintenance, and noticed the Barred Rock had perched on the edge and taken up the corner and gone to sleep. Shortly thereafter, the Easter Egger and Ancona followed. The Oprington has tried, but unfortunately his wing feathers are the most underdeveloped and he can't quite flutter up there. I've taken to leaving the cage top off, and allowing them to sleep there. They seem content, and don't even try to leave the tank (after all, the food's in there). My concern is this: is this them trying to tell me they need more space? That they're ready to go outside? As you can see in the pic, they still have at least half their fluff, but as I don't have a lot of options, the most I could do is set up a separate nursery and put half in one, half in the other... but I hate to separate the flock. I can leave the tank lid off all day and night and they don't budge outside it, just sit on the edge, and I've even rigged a branch (securely) to the top of the tank, and they seem to like that even better. They hop down to eat, drink, and run around when they want, and then hop back up to sleep. So usually, there's three up top and three down bottom. Rather than set up a separate area, is this enough to give them some extra room?
2) Coop transition. For those that missed it, I live in Seattle. Now with September upcoming, there's no rain or overcast yet (it usually shows up early to mid-October, and by then they should all be in the coop), but while the days are sunny and very warm, the nights get very chilly. I was told by our farm-supply guy that he recommends them going outside full-time around 6 weeks, assuming they've all grown in their feathers... does that sound right, considering the climate, here? And once we do the transition, I've heard you should lock them in for a while, but does that mean lock them IN the coop 24/7, or just at night, or just for most of the day with a few hours outside to forage and work out some energy?
3) Sneezing! So, the other day, while roosting on the edge of the tank, my Barred Rock sneezed on me. I definitely felt some "discharge" hit my hand (which I immediately washed), but she only did it one more time. The next day, the Easter Egger did the same thing to my roommate. Now, they're not sneezing enough we've noticed it again, but I've seen some scary posts about infections and wanted to make sure. I mean, I assume they have nasal lubrication of some kind, so if it's a dusty sneeze, it's normal if some "boogers" come out with it, but wanted to make sure.
4) Grit. When I got the laundry list of supplies from the farm supply, I got chick feed as well as grit. We needed to grind up the chick feed for the first week, but after that, they seem to be eating it just fine. I got some grit and mixed it in per instruction from farm-supply guy, but now that the chicks are growing I'm wondering how much good it's doing. The chick feed is fairly chunky compared to the grit, which is almost powder-like in texture. Do I need to upgrade to something closer consistency to the feed, or is this powderish grit exactly what they need?
5) Dogs. While I am quite capable of training my dog, I also am blessed with an exceptionally astute one who responds very well to my training techniques. However, my mum's neighbor has a dog that (while ADORABLE and super-friendly to dogs and humans alike) thinks that chickens are for chasing and eating. They have had us dog-sit on multiple occasions and while we love having her (she's good for our lazy dog), since I can't spend every moment of every day training her, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on training a dog to calm down around the chickens. I mean, it's not like we plan to let her at them, but I'd hate to say we can't dogsit because she'd be harassing the birds all day. They have their own fenced enclosure inside the yard around the coop, but we can't have her attacking the fence/barking/going batshit crazy at them, either. I'm hoping when they're full grown (and, at that time, 1/2 her size so not so meek-looking), she'll calm down, but any advice would be welcome
I'm just worried that since they're used to my dog they have no fear of them whatsoever, and I don't want anyone getting hurt.Thank you all so much for your help and support! I hope you enjoyed the story and pictures, and can't wait to hear your advice. As a parting gift, I give you cuteness:
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