Diary of Chicks in a College Life

[drumstick diva]

4theloveofhens - Keep the boyfriend!! Does he have any brothers???

 

[chickenlady08]

Quote:
Unfortunately I don't have a garage, but I"ll be sure the cage is animal proof as best I can!!

that is good that you will animal proof ur babies. I am such a nervous Nellie about something gettin my babies (or anyone else's babies) esp ones that are so defenseless. I have a 5 day old little baby under my 1 broody WJG in my garage. She is such a good broody she still has 3 eggs under her and she is still teachin that little baby stuff. I just love to see this. I never would have thought that i would have loved chickens as much as I do. My son says I have OCD (Obsessive Chicken Disorder) Hey we all have to have something wrong with us right

Good Luck and I will be following your adventure as it will surely become one, but a fun one to say the least.

 

[4theloveofhens]

Quote:

Aw, thanks, Drumstick! I am a lucky girl for sure!

 

[4theloveofhens]

Little Update!

The bf and I just put an application in for a new place we REALLY want for August! They allow chickens, have a great big FENCED in backyard, and GUESS WHAT! The neighbor has chickens too! So, REALLY hoping we get it! Will keep you guys posted.


Also, the Girls were out for their play time today (~2 hours) in a wire box we made from those 17 panels I found from Goodwill. Using some yarn, we made a completely collapsible box that's perfect to hide away from curious neighbors. However, while they were outside today, I heard some voices in the backyard and flew outside, to where 3 little girls were "oohing" and "ahing" at the girls. So, Anita was the easiest one to grab for all of them to pet and the girls asked if they could come by again and see them.

I'm sure pretty soon the whole neighborhood will know...

Argh!

 

[Monkie_777]

I will be fallowing your adventure as well...I wish I were more organised eneough to share my overall adventure......But hey maybe someday..my chicks just went out ot there coop today kinda worried about them...

 

[CowboyColby]

Sounds like your doing great. Hope everything is going well with your girls and good luck on getting the new place that allows chickens. Your girls and bf are very lucky to have such a caring person in their lives such as yourself. Loving your posts keep it up.

 

[4theloveofhens]

Here's a little story for you. Everybody that owns chickens or poultry can attest to this. Chicks go through what, my mother and I had deemed years ago, an "Ugly Stage". This being where their cute little fluffy butts and fuzz slowly changes into mature pullet feathers (pullet being a less than 1 year old hen). I now have found a perhaps more kind way to put this change - chick puberty.

So, my chicks are a mix between young and old, their bodies changing, their behaviors expanding, and now they no longer fall over every other minute due to their abrupt napping as the did when they were only a week old.

Instead, they decided it would be a lot more fun to be adolescents, doing what teenagers do. Staying up late and being loud. Making messes and not cleaning up. Obsessing about their looks and how insecure they are. Only wanting to be with their "friends." Not caring to spend any valuable time with their parents. Ya know, the typical teenager stuff.

Ah, but puberty does pass, thankfully. But until then, I have four obnoxious teenagers that need more room to roam. I mean, after all, they are old enough to have their own room.

SO, OUTSIDE we go. Yes, today the BF and I embark to make their "halfway house". I cannot tell you how dangerous this is, since once they are outside, they are at the will of the Landlord Monster. But it's a risk we are forced to take. We have stepped in to many shavings and chick crumbles just to make our way to the toilet. We have gotten out of the shower clean only to step into more shavings. Our carpet is decorated with shavings. They stink. Yes. Amazing. They sprint from one end of the cage to the other, colliding with one another in the air, playing their silly chick games and gossiping about who knows what. Even now, I hear them flinging their shavings carelessly onto the floor, and guess who will have to pick it up? Me.

Ah but the little buggers are my pride and joy. Let's just move them outside, and let the....rocks? cards?...feathers? Ah, and let the feathers fall where they may.

Pics of their halfway house coming soon.

 

[4theloveofhens]

Ah, wonderful wikipedia:

The purpose of a halfway house, also called a recovery house or sober house, is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring and support

Indeed. The girls are now maturing pullets, ready to take on the world, one broken toe nail at a time.

Yes, one of the girls (not sure which Red Sex Link since they are starting to look exactly alike) broke her toenail to day, and much like a dog, it bled. And it bled. Not that much, I suppose. But it' s a chicken toe nail. It's like the size of a pin head and it's still nail...we all can relate.

So, as my visitors increase (neighborhood word has spread and I constantly have little girls over here to come "hold" the chickens and marvel at their chicken-ness

), and as the girls have overwhelmed us indoors, they are now outside. According to the BF, the project would only take an hour.

So after an almost entire day, we did have it built. So, we went to Home Depot, convinced it would be cheap.

Again,

. $135 dollars later, we were home. I let the boyfriend work his magic- it works. Some places you have to be careful because of nails... and other stuff... BUT it totally works until we move in August where we can tear it apart and start again. (Which we were planning all along.) So bear with me. The main thing that was important to us was

1) Predator proof
2) Be able to use most if not all of the materials in some way for our actual COOP in August
3) Be somewhat easy to clean, get in to grab chicks, change food/water.
4) Somewhat indescrete. We didn't want it to scream ILLEGAL CHICKENS LIVE HERE, but at the same time...
5) We wanted the girls to have more room to roam, more of the "real world" to see instead of a shower curtain, and hear real world noises (Instead of a bathroom fan or toilet flushing)
6) It had to require minimum building skills and tools (All we own combined was a screwdriver, hammer, tape measure, and pencil....)

So, the $135 breaks down as is

$21.94 for 2 sheets plywood OSB (Sorry all you chemical haters, but us poor people can't afford the "chemical-free" stuff)
$39.78 Hardware cloth (YUCK, I hate how expensive this stuff is)
$2.74 Nails
$4.46 2x4x12
$19.99 20" saw blade (ya, we hand sawed the angles on the 2x4's. Or should I say he did...)
$15.97 Wire cutter things for the hardware cloth
$2.28 x 2 for the locks
$1.27 for the knob which broke... bummer
$2.99 for a square
$10 hinges and another piece of wood that turned out to be sorta pointless
= ~$135

which is $135 more than I can afford. BUT, this is how we chose to look at it. Most, if not all, the wood materials and hardware cloth is reusable for their actual coop. Another thing to point out is that it would not have saved us a great deal of time to look for recycled wood. I mean, after all, the wood really only cost us about $30 bucks for new stuff. And it saved a lot of time. The real bulk of the cost was the tools/hardware. Now, the tools and hardware we will have for ever. So it's not like we're throwing money down the drain. A saw, square, hinges, locks, wire cutters, and nails are stuff you need as a person anyway.

SO, all that aside, this is what we came up with.

Those are my windows. oh the joy of being in a garden level unit. not.

Chicken puberty at it's finest.

The halfway house ended up being 4 x 4, 2 feet tall to a 2.5 feet, so there was a slope.... nothing is on the floor except for pine shavings (no linoleum or anything, save all that trouble once we have our actual coop).
They girls are roost-less as of right now, so working on that tomorrow. They have their lamp turned on at night. Speak of that, when walking the dog after my run this evening, I happened to be across the street and see a fox checking out the girls. And so it begins...

Ending on a good note, I have a new place to live in August, that fully accepts my four girls and the yard is not only completely fenced, but pretty dang big for a duplex, I'd say. BOOM!

Now to just make it until then. Quiet, chickies. Quiet chickies.

 

[drumstick diva]

Nice chickes and halfway house BUT, you've got a buff Cocker WOW!! I used to raise and show cockers, so I light up whenever I come across one. I see more Cockers on the forum than I do in everyday life. Everyone seems to have Labs, or Goldens, or Puggles....

Fingers crossed you make it till August, the next place sounds wonderful for you and chickies.

 

[4theloveofhens]

Quote:
Buff cocker? as in fat?

Haha, it's no surprise to us. He's got a "little" love on him, but he's never been an "energetic" hyperactive dog. And I am for sure thankful for that. He also needs a haircut, badly. Argh!