CrookedWarden
Chirping
- Jan 5, 2023
- 14
- 45
- 51
Howdy Folks,
Well, I figured I'd share a bit of progress with y'all on my endeavor into chicken raising.
My (our) babies turned three weeks on Sunday & are starting to flap around the brooder.
My wife & girls like to visit them daily & let them peck & crawl on their hands. One, in particular, is very brave & will readily perch on our hands when we make the "money sign" rubbing fingers together. Actually only one is really shy but, they all come running when I make mush from the feed & call "chicky cheep! chicky cheep!".
I try to limit this treat to every other day. They also have started flapping around a bit more & can even clear the lip of the stock tank which causes my girls to screech.
Unfortunately, this also roused the interest of our cats so I clamped 1x2s on top of the chicken wire to create a more secure cover.
The cover is in two parts, with a 1x3 across the tank & chicken wire stapled to it and then clamped under 1x2s along the tank lip. The side without the heating lamp has a frame of 1x3s (from an old project) and chicken wire stapled to it. I had a blink camera laying around so I set it up with motion detection & can tell when a cat decides to jump on the top. The look on their face when I fuss at them through the mic' is pure comedy. Getting up at 2:30am, 3am, 4:30am to the alert tone is not comedy.
This weekend I begin coop construction. They are getting pretty big & I hope to have them outside full-time by the 8 weeks at the end of April. Maybe sooner if the weather decides to warm up. I read a really interesting post here about automating the coop with a Raspberry Pi. I just happen to have a couple laying around so, the wheels are turning.
My wife is convinced we have 5 cockerels & one pullet. I'm more of a "wait & see" kind of guy.
Pics below of the setup (pardon the mess) & of the babies.
Well, I figured I'd share a bit of progress with y'all on my endeavor into chicken raising.
My (our) babies turned three weeks on Sunday & are starting to flap around the brooder.
My wife & girls like to visit them daily & let them peck & crawl on their hands. One, in particular, is very brave & will readily perch on our hands when we make the "money sign" rubbing fingers together. Actually only one is really shy but, they all come running when I make mush from the feed & call "chicky cheep! chicky cheep!".
I try to limit this treat to every other day. They also have started flapping around a bit more & can even clear the lip of the stock tank which causes my girls to screech.
Unfortunately, this also roused the interest of our cats so I clamped 1x2s on top of the chicken wire to create a more secure cover.
The cover is in two parts, with a 1x3 across the tank & chicken wire stapled to it and then clamped under 1x2s along the tank lip. The side without the heating lamp has a frame of 1x3s (from an old project) and chicken wire stapled to it. I had a blink camera laying around so I set it up with motion detection & can tell when a cat decides to jump on the top. The look on their face when I fuss at them through the mic' is pure comedy. Getting up at 2:30am, 3am, 4:30am to the alert tone is not comedy.
This weekend I begin coop construction. They are getting pretty big & I hope to have them outside full-time by the 8 weeks at the end of April. Maybe sooner if the weather decides to warm up. I read a really interesting post here about automating the coop with a Raspberry Pi. I just happen to have a couple laying around so, the wheels are turning.
My wife is convinced we have 5 cockerels & one pullet. I'm more of a "wait & see" kind of guy.
Pics below of the setup (pardon the mess) & of the babies.
. Keep telling that one he's gonna be sorry if he makes them an enemy, obviously he didn't learn the lesson with our resident mockingbird going after his head! 
. She was so disappointed that I wouldn't give it to the (then 10 days old) chicks. My younger Aussie is scared of them 
.
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