[The Shire] Our growing flock!

[newchickychick]

Bahaha it was SO funny. This morning I went in to do morning checks, make sure everyone's doing well, change out feeders and waterers, etc. And I was working first on the bigger chickie tent, and heard that noise and I was SO confused. I ran over to the chickie brooder thinking the littlest baby got STEPPED on or something by one of the bigger ones. Which, wouldn't really warrant the loud noise it was, but I was certain someone was hurt. It was silent. So I went back over to the older babies and kept working on tending to them. I heard it again so I ran back over! Silence again. So I'm standing there just like: and slowly inch back to the bigger babies. But I leaned over to peer at the tent. The MOMENT I look away, there it is again! Finally I was finished with those babies and went over to the baby brooder. This little black chick with a BRIGHT pink comb ruffles up, puffs up, pulls his shoulders back, and sticks his neck way out and makes THAT noise. I was in UTTER disbelief. I was torn between laughing and worrying something was wrong with him because I'd never heard of a chick so young crowing. I ended up going back for my phone to try to catch it on camera, and then THAT guy started doing it so I was able to catch it. They were having a BLAST with it. It was so unexpected but they sure all seem happy, so I can't complain. It was definitely ADORABLE.

I have never seen a 3 week old crow, OH MY GODDDDD that's so cute HAHAHHA

 

[thistlewick]

Bantam crows are CUTE AS HECK too

I don't want Bantams - but everytime I'm at an auction or swap they're always going off and it's so cute I just cannot!!!

 

[newchickychick]

Bantam crows are CUTE AS HECK too

I don't want Bantams - but everytime I'm at an auction or swap they're always going off and it's so cute I just cannot!!!

We were GOING to wait until next year to get Bantams, but my husband took me to TSC the day my grandfather passed to get my mind off of things. We were looking for ideas based on the prefabs there to try to figure out ways we could build a fun 'treehouse'ish inspired Bantam coop. Then I was like "you know they've got Bantams in today right?" and he went in, stared at them, quietly went 'crap' and we left with 12. He's the reason we got Silkies too! I was surprised they were on his want list but no complaints! It turns out neither of us have very much impulse control.

 

[newchickychick]

Phewh. Nasty rainy day again and outside coop got the flies. We deep cleaned it out, and I mean majorly (this time I lead the charge to show kiddo and hubby how I do it...). Got some products I saw recommended by folks on the forum to dust in the coop under the bedding to see if it helps. :[ Those sweet babies. Thankfully no sign of any flies ON them at least! But ugh. Gross! I'm going to be doing REALLY close checks on them to be sure no one gets fly strike. Thankfully they're all quite clean as a whole so that definitely helps, but need to figure out how to keep that run more dry.
For the big run, we're going to have drain rock surrounding it and some good landscaping to keep rain from pooling up like it does around the run. We've never had this much rain in SO many years. Driving me batty!

Little roo's still doing his proud little crows. What a goofball! Really hoping he ends up a gentleman so we can keep him. One of the Mille Fleur D'uccles is already a jerk (picking on other chicks). I made sure they've got great feed protein % wise, but added some extra vitamins to their water for tonight to see if it helps. Little fusser! Everyone else is doing really well and everyone else is mingling nicely, so hoping it's just him with some vitamin issues and not just being a born-rude boy from the get go.

Praying we can wrap up the coop tomorrow and move the babies in. Rain rain, go away!

 

[newchickychick]

I’m thinking 3 of our SLWs are roos now (straight run) but still not 100% sure. I love our Wyandottes so much! A nearby TSC has silver laced gold pullets in and I’m sorely tempted… but going to behave and wait until we’ve gotten started on the second coop. Since we’ve got 35 more chicks coming next week! 5 Turkens and 30 surprises. And 6 from a breeder! (5 chicks and one pretty cockerel) The wait is killing me!

The cockerel (Appa) is going to get his own little prefab that we will end up using to put in with the big custom Bantam coop alongside our other prefab while he’s in quarantine and being introduced to the others after. Excited!

 

[newchickychick]

The babies have hatched! They are PRECIOUS! One has a little half'n'half head puff. We will be driving to get them on the 30th! Way too exciting! <3

 

[newchickychick]

One of our Silkies has a limp that showed up yesterday out of ABSOLUTELY nowhere. I'm keeping an eye on it, but so far it's getting around just fine for food/water. We're going to double the brooder space tonight when we clean out and attach the other kiddie pool brooder once we kick the big chicks out into the coop. We've got the big original tub for when we get the new orders next Wednesday and next Friday, to give them a few days to get their bearings before joining the others in the big brooder. I'll post lots of pics and videos of the coop and us unleashing the chickies! I bought the cutest little strawberry themed swing for them. I know they may NEVER use it, but gosh I'm going to try.
But for the coop... Tomorrow morning would be very worst case. Poor hubby'd been called in to work again today and had a few later days working than usual this week. I swear his job was sabotaging my chicken dreams.

This'll be great to get everyone out! Since we're still hopeful the meat bird crosses will hopefully be able to live longer lives, and just in case of injured/slow/hopefully eventually old birds, we're going to have one roosting bar set relatively low which'll help those big guys be able to roost a lot too! It's gonna be quite a large/long ladder set up, but at least they'll have plenty of room that way. It'll be the very last thing we do, adding it in while we've got the chickies in there so they can watch us build it and be running around their new digs while we do so. That way they'll get in there quicker and enjoy the great space while we prepare the roosting bars for them to sleep on.

We've got all the lumber ready for the run as well as the hardware cloth. That's SO much hardware cloth (70'x20' run plus 8' high to meet up to the coop height) . What an expensive startup, but at least they should hopefully be happy and healthy!

Appa's (new cockerel from breeder we're getting!) quarantine coop will just be a prefab from TSC, but we plan to refurbish that and the other one we've been using for the outside babies once we get them moved into the big coop after introductions to use for the Bantams alongside a 8'x12' we'll build for them. We'll be measuring that out as soon as this big coop's built and put down placement flags while we work on the run for the big coop. So exciting! We're also going to do an 'introductory' coop too attached to the big run that'll be a 8'x12' as well for easier integration with its own run attached to the large for when we add more chicks as the years go on.

 

[newchickychick]

NOW what am I supposed to do until Wednesday?