Just getting into chickens

[bruceha2000]

June 14 update. The chicks came today. Other than the lack of a "your chicks have shipped" email which I would have expected yesterday things went swimmingly. After reading that if you use a cardboard box for a brooder, you should put curved box board in the corners so they don't squish one of their 'pals' in there, I am surprised the box the chicks came in not only had square corners but due to its design, had short 'walls' that made it even easier to trap a baby. The poor Faveroelles! All is well though. The all ate and drank and tried to fall asleep under the lamp until another chick would come running along and step right on them. They are all over the tub except when they want to sleep so I guess the temp is good.

I suppose like all first time chicken owners, I am amazed at the capabilities of a 2 day old chick. No momma to tell them to preen, but the Astralorps were already at it. There was a small spider in the tub. They chased it and I didn't see it again so I'm assuming one has already had its first 'treat'.

I'm not allowed to attach pictures, hopefully the link will work. I converted them to B&W. I discovered, as you all know already, that red light is REALLY red in photos! The only one I took with the light off was fuzzier than the chicks.

I've got these figured out:
Astralorps - obvious - black ,
Faveroelles - yellow, 5 toes, a bit smaller than the rest
Ancona - yellow with a lot of black.
Ameraucana - I THINK must be the other yellow ones
Partridge Chanteclers and Blue Red Cubalaya - no clue. The other 4 chicks are yellow with brown but none are closely patterned enough to say 'these two are the same'. I think once their wing feathers come out, the Chanteclers will be obvious and that will leave the Cubalayas as the last 2.

Here's hoping the statistics on sexing are wrong in my case and the likely 1.2 males will be girls

https://picasaweb.google.com/109884716391531581236/Chickens?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCri4bx7sCiVw

 

[bruceha2000]

Faverolles - yellow, 5 toes, a bit smaller than the rest
Ameracuana - I THINK must be the other yellow ones

Change that, the slightly smaller yellow ones aren't the Faveroelles. Just didn't remember right.

It is amazing how fast they change. During the 10 hours of my absence yesterday, the wing feathers of those that were slightly visible became clearly visible, with color markings no less. The ones that didn't show tips now have them, about 1/4".

 

[bruceha2000]

July 2nd. The girls will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. It was 80+ F this afternoon so I decided the chicks would like to see something other than the inside of the bathtub. My daughter and I set up a temporary enclosure with some chicken wire on the lawn. We put them in 2 boxes to go outside. They did NOT like being caught and put in the boxes. The first one my daughter caught pooped in her hand so she put it in the box and (with some disgusted words) washed her hand. Meanwhile the chicken popped out of the box. Ever notice how it is easier to catch a chick when there are 12 of them rather than just one?

We put the boxes on their sides in the enclosure and opened the flaps. Of course, being so NOT happy with being put in the boxes they ran right out. OK, not. Now we know where the term 'chicken' came from. They stayed in the boxes, being no braver than to go to the OTHER box. They did this for a LONG time:



You would think they never saw chicken poop before!


I finally took one box out and got:


They did get a bit braver after about 20 minutes. Partridge Chantecler:


It wasn't hard to get them BACK in the box for the ride back to the tub. And as you may expect, it was a LOT easier to clean out the tub and put more paper and paper towels down without 12 birds in it going bonkers.

Bruce

 

[leirob007]

the shredded paper bedding I only use when it is chilly out. during the summer I use no bedding at all if I can help it. less mess to clean up and burn and nothing to track into the feeders and waterers.
but if it is going to be chilly at night I use the paper bedding dusted over with shavings make sure you clean the brooder weekly.
you have a horse stall ! that is all you need. rake out a clean dry corner. put your heat lamp over it. it will pay you to wrap the inside in wire to deter varmints. load up a feeder with starter/grower. put a waterer out there and fill it with rocks or marbles for the first week ( just to make sure they won't drown each other by standing on one another's head when they are drinking which they may do ) and turn them loose. they will go to and away from the heat and will always return to that stall as long as they live. so free ranging will never be a problem. you can open the doors in the day as soon as they are fully feathered in good. ( put a board or something down to set the waterer on. that will keep the water a lot cleaner). a hanging waterer with the nipples on the bottom is the BEST waterer no dirt at all. no water tray to keep clean... no funky stuff growing overnight or feed residue to mess it up.

Status update:
I ordered 12 chicks from Ideal; 2 each of 6 breeds. They should arrive 6/14-15. When they start laying, I should have white from 2, blue/green from 2 and various shades of cream/brown from the rest. Some will lay medium eggs (don't tell my wife!) so hopefully I will be able to figure out which are laying and which are not.

I have ordered a remote sensing thermostat (Zoo Med ReptiTemp 500R) so I don't have to worry about the lamp being too close or too far. Once I get a stable 95 degrees before the chicks arrive, it should deal with the weekly temp drop with small adjustments.

We have a lot of cardboard boxes, I plan to cut some up to fill the bottom of the tub for 'traction'. Can I just shred the newspaper and (non plastic) junk mail to use for bedding as leirob007 suggested? That would be cheaper than buying shavings. Are there down sides to doing this? I'm all for doing things inexpensively but not if the result is harming the chicks or buying things 3 times as often and costing twice as much in the long run.

When they outgrow the tub (might be only 2 or 3 weeks from pictures I've seen!), I'll need to have the barn stall converted to a coop. I might need to box off a corner to act as a 'warm room' so the lamp can hold proper temp but that can just be a quick cardboard or plywood design. Good thing I don't have anything else to do

It is early for this question but everything takes time:
How high does a fence need to be so the birds won't fly out when they get bigger? The fence around the barn yard is about 3'.

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[bruceha2000]

Yep, got that 1/2" hardware cloth all over the inside. Nearly 90' of 36" wire. 2/3rds of the area above the plywood wall already had 2"x4" welded wire. I left it up because:

1) More protection can't hurt.
2) It would be a lot of work to get off!

Front shown partly finished. I have the roosts in, two 8' at 4' high and one 8' at 2' High. Plenty for a dozen chickens to all be 'on the top' once they are big enough to get there. The roosts run along the back wall (the 4' high ones are 12" and 30" from the wall) and connect to the wall you can see in the opening left of the door in this picture. Not sure if the kids can make 2' so I'll put in a short length 1' up for them to start on. I KNOW they can make 1'.




I need to order the nipples. The wife definitely likes the idea after seeing the mess the babies make in the waterer in their brooder. I like the idea of the 5 gallon bucket outside the coop with a float valve for filling and pipe with nipples for the birds. I'm going to put it in the right corner so any drips will head out of the coop. I'll get extras so I can put a water line out in the run (once I build it). Is there more than one 'brand' of nipples? If so, I would prefer the 'best' ones that leak the least when being used and not at all otherwise.

Need to make a feeder as well. Might go with the "pipe outside the coop to fill" ideas I've seen on BYC. I want to be able to do things quickly when necessary and that doesn't include stomping through the coop at 5 AM to check their food and water.

Bruce

 

[bruceha2000]

Coop done. Well except the nest boxes. But I have 5 or 6 months before they need them.
The BIG cardboard box on the right side is on end with the opening to the right hand wall. The heat lamp on the thermostat is just inside the top. And where were the chicks when I went to say good night? In a pig pile on in the back right corner. I put the waterer from the brooder on the block next to the rock under the big waterer. Hopefully they will figure out there is water in it. I saw one on the big rock reaching WAY down to drink from the smaller waterer.