New To The Forum (and Chickens!) - Housing & Breed Questions

[harldane]

Hi everyone,

As someone else said on this list, I'm so glad that this website and forum are here! There is so much information available...it can be happily overwhelming!

I've been wanting chickens for a couple years, so when I learned my daughter's kindergarten class was going to incubate chicken eggs, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, my husband didn't seem to share my excitement so I figured I'd have to wait for my dream.

Well, 9 little chicks hatched last Thursday and my wonderful hubby surprised me by not only secretly agreeing to bring all of them home over spring break but he went to the feed store and bought all of the needed food/water bowls and supplies! In the end, other families stepped up and we brought 3 home to keep.

The eggs were donated by a classmate's grandmother's friend, so we have no idea what kind they are (some eggs were brown, others white). I've been pouring over pictures online, but the "girls" keep changing every day, getting wing feathers and now cute little tail feathers too!

Does anyone have any ideas? Here they are:

From bottom to top, please meet, Alice, Yum Yum, & Daisy! Yum Yum was born at lunchtime so the teacher named her (we hope she's not a he and becomes dinner).

Some questions too:

Housing....they've been living in an aquarium as you can see, but I'm afraid they're going to run out of room soon. I have an unused metal rabbit cage, but it has a wire floor and I've read that it's not the best on their little feet. I've seen some people with gallon sized rubbermaid containers - both clear and colored. Is there a preference to let them see the world or be more contained?

Belly Buttons...Alice has a little hard dark brown bump on her belly similar to what babies have after they're born. I need to take a picture, but it's not near her bum like I've read about and she poops with the best of 'em.

Well, thanks everyone in advance for any info!

Nicole & the girls (we hope!)

 

[unionwirewoman]

Welcome and congrats on the chickies ! I'm not sure what you have ...but they sure are cute ! As far as housing them....they will continue to grow fast....so keep that in mind . I'm not sure where you're from .....but I keep mine in a partitioned off room in my coop outside with a heat lamp . You're going to need to get a bigger area for them soon.... a rubbermaid tote will work fine for maybe a couple of weeks .....but you're going to have to construct something alot bigger here soon . Take a look at some of the coops on this website ...maybe you can get some good ideas !

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
As for wire being a little rough on their feet. i dont really thing iit will bother them one bit. what people need to see is their feet aren't like ours. Soft and Squishy. Their scales. picture your whole feet covers in your finger nails/toe nails. wouldn't hurt to walk on the wire. But. if you want to make it a little soft. you could put some hay. in the pen. and it would be soft. warm etc. heres some pictures of my pens. Their not quite finished yet though.

 

[DTchickens]

Sorry for posting twice. wouldn't let me post both images,

I have half of the pen Wire. other half wood. so their not on the wire all the time.


Well. it wont show so i guess. you can just copy and paste the link into the Browser so you can see the pen

 

[CarlaRiggs]

Hello, Nicole ~

Because you're in California, it will just be a few weeks, and the chicks will be able to be outside. Is your dh as handy as is he sweet?

You may want to put him to work building a small coop and larger run for your chicks as soon as possible.
Where abouts are you located in southern California?
I know a few chicken owners here that have very open coops attached to runs. The weather doesn't get down that low, and the hens seem to do just fine. You'll want to use hardware cloth to secure the enclosure from predators. Raccoons especially are extremely clever with very nimble hands.

The chicks grow so quickly, as you're already discovering. If it were me, I'd skip the larger inside container, and build an outside coop.

 

[airmom1c05]

Welcome to the forum! Your three chicks are adorable. I personally love the name, Yum Yum!

I agree with the coop and run advice. I think the belly button thing will fall off by itself. Seems like I read a thread on here recently about something similar, but the umbilical cord was still attached. If you do a search on here with umbilical it might take you there.

Husbands can be pleasantly surprising sometimes.

Mine brought our first hen home, then fussed when I wanted more chickens, then built a nice run on the old tin tool shed we converted into a coop. It's up and down with him, but I have patience!

Your husband sounds like a sweetheart for the time being!

I hope you'll have as much new joy in your lives as I do in mine with the introduction of chickens in your family. Enjoy!

 

[Mrs MIA]

Way to go, hubby!!! (he's a keeper!)

I agree... check out the coop forum - there's a lot of ideas out there, especially for small spaces.
Just be careful... it's addicting.

I started out with 10, and I'm up to almost 40 already... more on the way, own hatchery business starting after just under two years of raising them.

LOL!

 

[harldane]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

Yes, hubby is not only very handy with tools but very special in my heart right now!

I've been eyeing the Eglu for ages, but it's so darn expensive I just can't justify it (hubby even considered buying it to surprise me until he saw the cost ).

I saw a do-it-yourself version using a barn-type dog house in Mother Earth News and we're considering that...or a triangle-shaped tractor coop (I think it's called that?). I want something that we can move around each day as well as give them access to our garden that runs the perimeter of our backyard. I'll definitely check out the coop forum areas to see what people have.

Oh, and I live in Ventura Co., California...though we wish we lived back east. We fell in love with Charlotte, NC's wonderful landscape and trees galore when we were there for a biz trip for me last year. Oh well....the grass is always greener and like other places, we do have 4 seasons in CA: flood, fire, earthquake, and wind.

Nicole & the girls

 

[kstaven]

If you want something really light to move, look up "Hoop Coop" in the coop section.

Welcome, future chicken addict!

 

[unionwirewoman]

We have four seasons too........cold , no sun . Very , very cold lots of snow . Kinda warm with snow . And my favorite........too hot , too many tourists and fire . Our summers up here are going into the 105 f section , and the winter this year was record low of -30 . Maybe the grass IS greener on the other side lol ! But I do love it here . Hope someone comes along to figure out what kinda chicks you got though ! They might be a mix !