I have quickly become familiar with chicken math. My daughter and I decided to get some chicks this fall to grow up over the winter. Since the demand for eggs was a good deal higher than our 6 hens could supply, we thought we'd go big. So... we decided to order 18 for ourselves and 7 for a friend. The friend was "loaning" us her incubator so we could hatch some later. She didn't think she'd be hatching again, but said we should just keep the incubator and if she ever wanted to hatch she'd borrow it back. So 18 for us and 7 for her, 25. That meets Welp's minimum order. Then we noticed, at Welp, you pay an extra $1.50 for each breed/color under 5 you order. Okay, so where we had ordered 4 of something I upped it to 5, +7 chicks. 18 for us, 7 for the friend, plus 7 because they're cheap= 32. Welp included 5 extra babies=37, we lost one at 8 days=36.
Now the friend is getting a divorce and is afraid she and her son will end up in an apartment, so she doesn't want her chicks. All in all, our 18 chicks have turned into 36. Ummm? How'd that happen again?
We'd been keeping the chicks in a pack 'n play, which worked out great for a couple weeks. But they were quickly outgrowing it and needed room to run around more. I had no idea they'd try flying at 2 weeks.
Crowded babies
So Friday we started putting together a bigger brooder. A couple women with no carpentry skills, or power tools, well, if this isn't the most Rednecked brooder you've ever seen, I don't know what is. We found a couple posts in the woods and a couple pallets that we confiscated the wood from. So the 2 fence posts 8'+ laying parallel to each other, nail some of the pallet slats across for support. Then we stapled the cardboard from my Grandson's swing set to the bottom.
We had some plastic, very wimpy chicken wire in a shed that we put all around, then lined the outside of the chicken wire with plastic trash bags to keep draft out and warmth in. It turned out very large 4' x 8'+ and we knew we didn't have enough shavings to thickly line the bottom, but we did have one bale of hay. We put the hay in the bottom and the wood shavings on top of that. I do a lot of sewing and usually have several bolts of fabric around. So we used one of those as a cover.
Is this redneck or what? And yes we made a mess on the floor but it's all cleaned up now.
It looks like a football field in there!
They're very happy with all their new space. Some of them actually fly from one end to the other. They'll be 3 weeks old on Wednesday.
The only chicks I can identify for sure are the Barred Rocks. I have 3 buff colored chicks, 2 are Buff Wyandottes, no idea what the other one is.
Don't know what this one is either, but lots of them are starting to get their little tails sticking up. How cute is that? Can you tell this is my first order? tee hee
I have 2 of each of these, which is what I ordered in Lakenvelders. I think this is 1 silver and 1 gold Lakenvelder.
Can you tell we are really enjoying these little fluffs?
Now the friend is getting a divorce and is afraid she and her son will end up in an apartment, so she doesn't want her chicks. All in all, our 18 chicks have turned into 36. Ummm? How'd that happen again?
We'd been keeping the chicks in a pack 'n play, which worked out great for a couple weeks. But they were quickly outgrowing it and needed room to run around more. I had no idea they'd try flying at 2 weeks.
Crowded babies
So Friday we started putting together a bigger brooder. A couple women with no carpentry skills, or power tools, well, if this isn't the most Rednecked brooder you've ever seen, I don't know what is. We found a couple posts in the woods and a couple pallets that we confiscated the wood from. So the 2 fence posts 8'+ laying parallel to each other, nail some of the pallet slats across for support. Then we stapled the cardboard from my Grandson's swing set to the bottom.
We had some plastic, very wimpy chicken wire in a shed that we put all around, then lined the outside of the chicken wire with plastic trash bags to keep draft out and warmth in. It turned out very large 4' x 8'+ and we knew we didn't have enough shavings to thickly line the bottom, but we did have one bale of hay. We put the hay in the bottom and the wood shavings on top of that. I do a lot of sewing and usually have several bolts of fabric around. So we used one of those as a cover.
Is this redneck or what? And yes we made a mess on the floor but it's all cleaned up now.
It looks like a football field in there!
They're very happy with all their new space. Some of them actually fly from one end to the other. They'll be 3 weeks old on Wednesday.
The only chicks I can identify for sure are the Barred Rocks. I have 3 buff colored chicks, 2 are Buff Wyandottes, no idea what the other one is.
Don't know what this one is either, but lots of them are starting to get their little tails sticking up. How cute is that? Can you tell this is my first order? tee hee
I have 2 of each of these, which is what I ordered in Lakenvelders. I think this is 1 silver and 1 gold Lakenvelder.
Can you tell we are really enjoying these little fluffs?
