First Time Chick Parents, Spring 2016

[Yooper]

Us too!
still waiting till 25th of May for our brood of 8 Americana, 4 golden laced and 4 silver lace Wyandottes. oh, and a Americana little boy.
We have an old cheap trailer enclosed with plywood floored with plastic sheeting, water can, feeder, grit and the ever present heat light. we will keep them in the garage and monitor the temperature. It actually snowed today for a bit. 30 degrees here in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Making plans for the coop and run while building a deck in the back yard. we have about an acre with garden area etc. I think ill make the coop large ( 8 X 10) with a partition blocking out the rear 3 feet across the coop. access door in the back with food, etc. storage , open shelving , and a brooder on the bottom 2 feet in that space. the pen will be 10 by 16 , that should be plenty of room for 17 birds right? we have bear, wolf, cougar, raccoon, fox , weasel, owls , hawks etc. so all of this will need to be sort of critter proof. wish us luck.
we be Babes in Da Woods... The wife really fell in love as we looked for chicks at the TSC .

 

[FireGurl26]

Us too!
still waiting till 25th of May for our brood of 8 Americana, 4 golden laced and 4 silver lace Wyandottes. oh, and a Americana little boy.
We have an old cheap trailer enclosed with plywood floored with plastic sheeting, water can, feeder, grit and the ever present heat light. we will keep them in the garage and monitor the temperature. It actually snowed today for a bit. 30 degrees here in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Making plans for the coop and run while building a deck in the back yard. we have about an acre with garden area etc. I think ill make the coop large ( 8 X 10) with a partition blocking out the rear 3 feet across the coop. access door in the back with food, etc. storage , open shelving , and a brooder on the bottom 2 feet in that space. the pen will be 10 by 16 , that should be plenty of room for 17 birds right? we have bear, wolf, cougar, raccoon, fox , weasel, owls , hawks etc. so all of this will need to be sort of critter proof. wish us luck.
we be Babes in Da Woods... The wife really fell in love as we looked for chicks at the TSC .

Hello Yooper. We also reside in the U.P. We currently have 4 and a half week old RIR pullets...6 of them. They are still in our grow up pen brooder. The weather been crazy...seems as though we will be getting freezing temps. tonight as well as some snow. I will probably wait till my girls hit 6 weeks old to put em out in the coop/run. We are going to attempt to free range them. I know we have lots of predators out here, so it will be interesting. I am keeping em in the coop and run for about 1 to 2 weeks just to get em acclimated to the coop as their home before we let them loose. I purchased nite-guard solar predator lights for the evening. I dunno how they are going to work but we shall see. I have our coop and run predator proofed as much as possible. I have had people tell me that 2 to 4 sq. ft per chicken for coop size and 10 sq ft. per chicken on the run size. My run is a bit on the smaller side but my plan is to free range them anyways. I also heard that hanging pie tins or shiny reflective strips of tape in trees and such of your area will keep daytime predators away (we both have eagles, osprey, owls, hawks, etc..) . We are hanging those around our area as well. Hope it helps. I didn't purchase our girls from TSC because they weren't vaccinated for Marek's (i called Townline Hatchery..where TSC gets the chicks from)...plus they didn't look that healthy in my opinion. We ordered our girls online from a hatchery, and they seem to be thriving pretty well. Getting bigger and bigger, stanking up our garage..lol. Can't wait to put em out. Amazing how fast they grow. Seems that our weather is going to be nice starting middle of next week. I was just worried about our nighttime lows through this week. Good luck to you!

 

[ediem]

New to backyard chickenry

Picked up my 2 vaccinated chicks Thursday. They seem happy but I gave them medicated feed. After reading here I see others do that on purpose and it's ok. I was worried I'd make them sick. I have a cream crested legbar and a barred Plymouth. They're just too cute. I pick up four pullets, all different, at the end of June to mid-July. Meanwhile I'm learning all I can from these two. The ccl seems more friendly and comes to me but she also breathes a bit faster and has a runny stool.

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[magicstorm]

Go to the illness and disease page and start a thread. I am a newbie too but the more experienced people on this forum are very helpful. They can give advice on what to do about the chick. Runny is not normal. Probably should post pics if able. Although i think you have to post a bit more to do that.

 

[ediem]

Go to the illness and disease page and start a thread. I am a newbie too but the more experienced people on this forum are very helpful. They can give advice on what to do about the chick. Runny is not normal. Probably should post pics if able. Although i think you have to post a bit more to do that.

Thanks, I'll head over there and do that now.

 

[kekstrom]

And finally we have completed our batch.


This is Izzie. She is a Cuckoo Maran.

And Sophia. She is another Easter Egger.


That brings our crew to a close... now we get to just enjoy them growing up in the brooder.... watch them change and entertain us with their chickie antics, and then one day when they are ready, introduce them to the coop and the others.

 

[AmandaMBG]

Fun mix of little ones!!! My Marans were two of the least friendly then all of the sudden this week they are the most friendly! I'm glad cuz I was starting to wonder if I was going to get any lovers out of them. I'm hoping at least one of them turns into a pap chicken. Your new little EE looks just like my favorite of the 4 I got.

And finally we have completed our batch. This is Izzie. She is a Cuckoo Maran. And Sophia. She is another Easter Egger. That brings our crew to a close... now we get to just enjoy them growing up in the brooder.... watch them change and entertain us with their chickie antics, and then one day when they are ready, introduce them to the coop and the others.

 

[crystalane26]

I will be going to the swap today in hopes of adding a few mixed breed babies to my little flock!!! Wish me luck !!!

Ameraucana

Ameraucana

Cuckoo maran

Road island red

Brown leghorn

 

[Yooper]

Thank for your reply and information. Up early this morning looking at 2 or more inches of new snow and it is still snowing . pretty chilly out there yet. stoked the fire and enjoying coffee. We only looked at the TSC chicks. We went to a feed store in Escanaba and got a way better price, the breeds we wanted and a lot of info from them about our endeavor. We may put our chicks our earlier depending on the weather. Let us know how those predator lights work out. We bought that heat tape for our water bucket and will have both food and water inside the coup for those bad winter times. Good luck with your girls. We may have bitten off more than we can chew by ordering 17 chicks but time will tell. We also want to free range and will have to come up with some sort of barrier for the garden. I hear "weeder geese " is the way to go with gardens. but well go slow in that arena. can you put up a pic of your coup and run?

 

[kekstrom]

Fun mix of little ones!!! My Marans were two of the least friendly then all of the sudden this week they are the most friendly! I'm glad cuz I was starting to wonder if I was going to get any lovers out of them. I'm hoping at least one of them turns into a pap chicken. Your new little EE looks just like my favorite of the 4 I got.

Our EE's are sisters from another mister! Twins for sure. So cute!