Moving chicks for outside play time

[silarajc]

Yeah, that is my plan from now on - and that way they get microbes and grit from the soil too. No more loose leaves unless they are cut up!!

 

[ChxLadyCass]

Yeah, that is my plan from now on - and that way they get microbes and grit from the soil too. No more loose leaves unless they are cut up!!

Yes! And I always hope there will be a few bugs too!

 

[jessmeagan]

I have to do the same thing (minus the wagon- we just carry them) and find that no matter what they will yell and run around fighting the capture. The enclosure we use is an old garden bed that we placed black netting over to keep out predators and birds. They love their daily play time and now spend from morning until evening outside (5weeks old).

We tip the transport box on its side in the enclosure and they will put themselves to "bed" as soon as it gets to bewitching hour and we hear their little bedtime chuckles- we go outside, tip the box over (they know the drill by now), and bring them into the brooder box to sleep. They love adventure time so I think it's worth a little fright in the morning capture for their recess days

 

[Red5]

I let my majority Buff Orpington birds ( 41 orps 4 weeks old, 3 Barred Rock pullets 6 weeks old, 4 Rhode Island Red pullets 5 weeks, with some 5 little chirping 1 week old B/R's) out for their first day of "freedom". A yearling attack cat jumped at the doorgate and somehow my biggest Barred Rock flew out. Fortunately, the cat shooed and the Buff landed in some grass opposite pen fencing and stayed until I retrieved it. I think it was a good lesson for them on day one. They all really took a liking to me after that, me sitting on a fold up chair, birds on my legs. Heh,

 

[ChxLadyCass]

@silarajc How are your chicks doing? Any new updates regarding integrating?

We are getting a nasty Spring storm this weekend, so integrating the big chicks with the hens is not likely. However, I may let my one week olds play with my 5-6 week olds in the garage and see how that plays out. My poor 6 week olds are WAY too big for their little brooder in the garage and I don't want to move them into the coop until they are 2 months old. I may need to spend some time this weekend creating a bigger pen in the garage! Oh if I only had a magic wand!

 

[silarajc]

We had to create a bigger brooder in the garage for both the littles and the bigs. They had completely collapsed the cardboard sides of the boxes we had taped together, trying to roost on them, and had escaped and gone exploring (and pooping) all around the garage.

Luckily, we had the kids' old 4X8 playhouse frame and used that to secure 4 ft high wire fencing that we had in the barn. So they have roughly a 5X10 oval, where they used to have probably a 4X6 oval. That worked well for the 6 week olds. The two week olds I placed next to the bigs in a wire dog crate, with an opening into a cardboard box to give them a little extra space. That way they can see each other but no interaction - and you should have seen the way the bigs crowded against the wire to see the littles huddled in the farthest corner! I had to scare the littles into the crate to where the heat lamp was - I don't think they realized it was there. I need to start weaning them off of it, but the bigs sure enjoyed being next to it again.

I am wondering about the immunity side of things. The bigs are vaccinated with Mareks and cocciodosis, but the littles are not. I am hoping that by slowly introducing them like this will help the littles with their immunity, as well the social integration. Maybe in a few days I can take some of the shavings from the bigs' area and put it in the littles' area?

We haven't had them out to play in a while - weather and trying to get the coop built just aren't cooperating! We have rain in the forecast all weekend too. One more post to set and the rest will go up easy - we had a lot of leveling and rock to go through that took forever!

 

[silarajc]

The coop building goes on and on...We finally have the foundation set, found out this weekend that the floor boards weren't thick enough and bent under our weight, so a 40 minute trip to the hardware store before we could get back to work. Then a family wedding 4 hours away yesterday. Oldest has an orchestra concert Tuesday, and it is supposed to storm Wednesday and Thursday. Can't put the flake board flooring on until we have a dry stretch good enough to put up the walls and roof. Ugh!!

But the babies got out to play for several hours. I'll have to get the pictures off the camera of them relaxing just outside the door under a bush, bigs and littles together. A little pecking of the littles, hard to watch but nothing severe. It's getting really hard to round them up to go out side, even if it is just through an open garage door, but it was a lot easier to get them in after a few hours out!

 

[silarajc]

Oh, and my confirmed rooster started crowing this morning when I turned the light in the garage on. He sounded so cute and acted so proud of himself!! I think he's a Dominique - about 7 weeks old.

 

[silarajc]

@Red5 - glad your babies are okay!

 

[silarajc]

Well, lost the first chicken. I was helping hubby with dinner when I saw the dog trot past the door with something white and chicken-like in her mouth. Sure enough, she had a bird. It was still alive, some broken feathers and one small puncture hole. I didn't feel anything broken, but she didn't open her eyes much and wasn't fussing when I picked her up, and we didn't know if she was just in shock or mortally wounded, so we put her in a box in the garage next to the others. She passed after about an hour. I wish I had known how bad off she was. I almost put her down right after the accident, but then I just didn't know and couldn't do it if it was possible she might recover.

Don't know how or when she got out of the garage. We've been using the outside water faucet to refill the water, so she could conceivably have been out for a day or two. We might have missed her when we had outside play time Saturday. Might have been something else attacked her and the dog just found her. Don't think so, though. Dog loves to chase and catch things. I've watched her catch a mouse. She plays with it like I have heard cats do.

And this is why I got so many birds that I can't tell individuals and don't give them names. She was one of the 7 or 8 white ones. We planted a tree that had been in a pot over her, next to the coop. The baby chicks we lost early on are there with blackberry bush seedlings.