Urban "Homesteader"

[Nheiles]

Curious Joe

Their fascination with themselves

A meme that made my laugh wife. (My own creation)


The look they give you when they think their getting a new treat.

 

[Nheiles]

The expanded brooder. Need to affix the upper walls.

Joe fluffed up he's grown a lot in 2 weeks.

 

[black_cat]

This is so interesting! I just found the thread today, and am looking forward to watching your chicks grow even more. What are the dimensions of the coop and run that you're building? What are the dimensions of the brooder? (I"m evilly planning for my own future flock)
I can't wait to see more updates!

 

[Nheiles]

This is so interesting! I just found the thread today, and am looking forward to watching your chicks grow even more. What are the dimensions of the coop and run that you're building? What are the dimensions of the brooder? (I"m evilly planning for my own future flock)
I can't wait to see more updates!

The coop will be 8' x 8' x ~7' tall. It will house 16 birds with a generous 4 sq ft per bird or 21 birds at 3 sq ft per bird. Initially the run will be 8' x 10' which gives me 10' around the coop to my property lines/fence. In the future I might expand it to into my property if I see a need. They will have free range time during parts of the day, though my garden isn't fenced and I can see them helping themselves to it.

The brooder is roughly 4' x 4' now and the previous one was two panels smaller (each panel is 16in), and prior to that was a large box that my miter saw came in. Everytime I made the brooder larger it was solely based off what I thought seemed reasonable. What I have now will be the max size till I put them inside the coop, which is still quite a few weeks out based on their feathering.

The brooder is built out of wire cube storage, zip tied together with 3.5 mil plastic sheeting wrapped and taped to make an enclosed wall. The floor is the same plastic sheeting with pine shaving on top. To expand the walls up we did the same thing as the base but didn't attach the plastic to it since the holes are too small for the chickens to fit through and it being high enough they dont try anyways. I used a camera tripod to hold the brooding lamp and it makes it easy to adjust the height on the fly.

Clean up is easy. I just put the chicks in the miter box with the thermo-brooder, remove the water and food dishes, lift the walls up place to the side and make a sack with the plastic with the bedding inside. Then put all the bedding in a staging area for compost. If the plastic is dirty I'll lay it out on my grass and spray it with the hose or toss it, since it's cheap.

One thing to consider with the size of brooder and coop is the type of chicken you get. Some can tolerate smaller enclosures, while others can cause aggression towards each other. One reason I chose the Buff Orpington.

 

[Nheiles]

These last three weeks have flown by and the chicks are growing quickly. The growth difference between the chicks is quite interesting. They all have their wing feathers now and most have their tail feathers others has started on their neck and head while, others are working on their bellies. Some are starting to give us signs which are the cockerels with the pink/red combs and the cocky rooster strut. Some are difference in size as well, though it might be the feathers then actual body size. Watching them grow is really fun!

We've got a routine down waking up in the morning, cleaning and replenishing their food and water. Doing this causes them to go wild, some jump around from one side of the brooder to the other, while others chirp and scratch in the bedding a few like to jump on the water or feed containers while I'm trying to pull them out. Their energy level has risen quite a bit and go absolutely nuts when I scatter meal worms as a treat in the brooder. There two chicks that when they find anything will run around the brooder playing what I call chicken ball, chirping and dodging other chicks. Most times the other chicks couldn't care a less as they are enjoying the meal worms in front of them, its a great bit of time and a challenge to not give them treat all the time.

We took them outside last Sunday and at first they all huddled on the side we placed them. Once a few chicks started investigating the pinned area they scattered around scratching at the grass eating bugs and enjoying the new environment. Our cabbages had some caterpillars which devoured them loosing all of them except for one head. Luckily I found some of them fed them to the chicks. It's interesting to see their minds work out is it safe, is it food, IT'S FOOD!!!!

So far all of them are not scared of us as we do try to handle all of them. The issue though is many of them look similar to the others and it can prove difficult to know which is which and if I just handle it.

We've only given one an official name of Joe. As a kid we had a RIR rooster that we named Joe after chicken and joes (for those that don't know that fried chicken and potatoes wedges). I always loved that rooster and wanted to continue the name. I felt Joe was a good gender neutral name, just encase Joe was a pullet, which looking at the comb would say pullet. Joe is a cuddle monster. When we open the top portion of the brooder she will jump up and demand to be held. We try to give her meal worms, but she looks at them and randomly peaks at a piece of thread on my pants, sweetly chirping. When Joe decides to go on a adventure its not much further than an arms length. She's the most feathered out and largest of them all. We've "named" a few others, one named Chicken Little because it peeps in distress all the time and is the loudest. Lately we've noticed it's the "bully" in the flock and will grab some feathers and not let go. It has a redish comb and if it doesn't act right it will be the first become dinner. Another we named Juan, because while growing it's wing feathers it had a wonky feather that stuck out, but now it's lost that feather and we have no way to know which one it is.

While watching the chicks as we do often my wife sneezed loudly and every single chick ran to the edge of the brooder and laid down. It took awhile and meal worms to get them back to normal. Our little dog always follows us into the room and boy she's jealous of the attention we're giving to the chicks. So I decided well how about Lucy meets the chicks, I picked her up and placed her in the brooder (fyi she's old and doesn't have teeth anymore and I didn't let go of her completely). Every chick swarmed her and she was like "oh hell no get me out of here", she's still jealous.

I got the trusses made and have started to install them, but keep on running out of power on my drill so I get started then have to stop. By the end of this week I'll have a completed coop, since I'm on furlough again and will have the time to get it done.

Every week that goes by has been such a joy having these little chicks in my life. Even after loosing two the joy they give me makes up for that and extra for the craze of the world.

 

[Nheiles]

They enjoyed mini concert one stood on the make shift roost and stayed there the entire time.


Chicken little


Joe as soon as I open the brooder


Field trip


Joe Joe not wondering to far but still investigating the area.

 

[Nheiles]

Finished installing the trusses with the help of my lovely wife.

 

[Nheiles]

Built a roost to stop them from jumping on the food and water dishes. Every morning one food dish is knocked over.

This chick which we believe to a cockerel has the darkest red comb and is starting on its woddles!!

 

[Nheiles]

Last night while spending time with the chicks we decided to try and distinguish the cockerels from the pullets. Our original order was 9 male and 6 female. We lost one buff and the free brahma, so we started by pulling out all the chicks that had the red/pinkest combs. After the sixth chick we noticed another trend, that all the chicks we thought to be the cockerels didn't have much tail feather growth, and they weighed more vs their size like they were dense.

In the end we figured we lost one of cockerels, so we're sitting at 8 and 6. I'm looking forward to confirming this when they're older.

It was fun to watch them interact as a bachelor flock. They found a patch of carpet that soon became the "dusting" location. Joe joined in when weaseled her way out of the brooder into my lap then was curious about the carpet dusting. I asked her which of these potential roosters is best and I got no response, though she did let it be known that she didn't like one of them that jumped off my wife onto her. It was precious when she ran chirping onto my lap.

Today I'm going to look into building/making a mini dusting container since they've been dusting in the bedding, grass and now carpet.

 

[Nheiles]

This is our little girl Abigail with the fancy tail. She's the smallest out of all the chicks.


Abigail climbed up on my lap after investigating the yard. She started to fluff up her neck and head feathers.


Grenda looking for something to eat. She's the largest pullet.


Jo Jo posing for the camera. What a pretty pullet.


This is an unnamed cockerel. When Jessica went inside to return Jo Jo this was the first chick to desire to be picked up. Lucky guy gets to enjoy outside and my lap.