Greyscale Acres -- Chapter 1

[3KillerBs]

Your son is the same age as me! I'm a freshman in August.

COOL!

 

[3KillerBs]

They let me hand-feed them a plantain weed tonight.

It's hard to take good photos because they move so fast!

 

[3KillerBs]

So far today we've done the drilling/cutting to make the nipple waterer and the no-waste feeder and wrestled with the electric poultry net setup.

I'll put the feeder and waterer together this afternoon since it's now too hot to work outside. Unfortunately, the fence has won the wrestling match for the moment, aided by the heat. But we will regroup and try again this evening.

 

[3KillerBs]

P.S. The idea of attaching plastic garden netting with 1/2" squares to the inside of the electric poultry net to make it chick-safe did not work. It is too saggy without using what DH has deemed an unacceptable number of zip ties. I will see about making an inner corral of plastic netting. We have a sizeable number of 2' T-posts unless my SIL has taken them all to use as plant markers.

 

[Foghorn J. Leghorn]

"Chick TV", I like that. Chick TV almost all we have been watching for a little over a week now!

 

[3KillerBs]

The chicks are upset with me because I changed their world again.

I made a horizontal nipple waterer and a no-waste feeder for them today.

Thread here.

 

[3KillerBs]

Check this thread for an account of my sons' Chick Rodeo yesterday morning. I *knew* Chipotle, the California White, was going to be trouble -- she's the first into every new thing I put in the coop.

Last night was going to be their first night without heat because it wasn't forecast to go below 74. But a rain front moved through and dropped it down to about 70 so I plugged them in at 3am when I found them huddled tighter than I thought looked comfortable.

The rest of the week is supposed to be nights in the mid-70's so that might have been their last night with heat. We'll see how the weather forecast matches the actual weather.

Don't they look adorable lining up on their training perch to go to sleep?

 

[3KillerBs]

No evidence of them using either the new feeder or the new waterer yet.

I will be off Friday and, hopefully, be able to do some work with adding new bedding and rearranging the coop furniture. If I get to put the plastic net inside the electronet tomorrow night to make it chick-tight then I will feel safe taking the small feeder and waterer out Friday morning for a while before it gets too awfully hot in hope of encouraging them to use the new equipment through giving them no option.

They're a month old now and I've found the little feeder dumped twice and the water dumped once.

 

[3KillerBs]

Been a while since I posted. Between work and evening thunderstorms I've hardly had more time with the chicks than it takes to feed and water them. Today we got the inner fence up -- just plastic garden netting that they can't get through the way they can get through the electric poultry net.

DH also built the ramp of ramps -- see thread here.

We were going to let them out for their first venture into their enclosure for a little while before sunset tonight but another thunderstorm came up so we couldn't.

They're not cute balls of fluff anymore and have been off heat all week with nights in the low to mid-70's.

I'll put pictures of the ramp and the fence in this post then make another post for pictures of the girls.

Yes, that's made from 2"x6"s. Overengineering is a family trait. You can see the short t-posts holding the inner fence in the second photo. That's temporary until they're too big to get through the net.

 

[3KillerBs]

I didn't get good shots of all of them. They have started to come running when I say "Chick-chick-chick" and hold out a weed of some kind (sourgrass, aka wood sorrel seems to be the favorite), but I can't touch them or pick them up and they don't sit still.

The Light Brahmas tower over their little sisters at 6 weeks compared to their 4 weeks, but they are not the dominant members of the flock.

Chipotle, the California White, does not hesitate to push a Brahma away from the goodies.

They were quite upset that I stirred up the bedding, added more, and raised the "coop furniture" so they cowered in the back corner.

It's getting harder and harder to tell the two Blue Australorps apart. I *think* this is Teriyaki, whose chick down was noticeably darker but whose first feathers are the exact same shade as Cordon's.

Dumpling, perching like a big girl on the half-diameter perch I put into the real perch support: