Why even try to control myself?

[ladybuglives]

Okay so I'm learning my hard lesson as well as the rest of you! I have 6 3week old chicks and they are in my TV/guest room. We are still finishing the coop -- argh!!!! When can I put them out there with a heat lamp? The dust, noise, cecal smell is really not fun -- not to mention the fact that I obsess on them -- checking their water every hour, etc. Any ideas for chick entertainment? They're going stir crazy...

 

[kfchickenlady]

planning on expanding coop as one is being built means insanity? Then Im headed down the slippery slope, folks! How can I possibly choose between so many beautiful kinds of chickens? At least mine all have to be brown egg layers, that narrows it down a LITTLE....except for the cochins and silkies or course.....

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

A.T. Hagan :

...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...
...(when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!),...

Just thought I'd repeat that for you...

Yes, I've made that mistake a number of times myself. Each time I said "I'm NEVER going to get more chicks than I have housing for BEFORE they arrive!"

I finally learned my lesson. We'll see if it sticks.

I've got 50 3wk old's brooding in my incubator/brooder room right now.(converted bedroom study). I've only got room outside for about half of them so I'm gonna be busy for a while. I got a good deal on a 10'x20' kennel off of Craigslist yesterday, now just figuring out where to put it so it will be in some shade. I guess I will have to slide the boat over in the shelter and give half of it to the birds.

I too always say never again, but guess what? I did it again. Nothing like a challenge with time restraints. I guess some of us will never learn.

when everyone tells you to build it BEFORE you have chicks, they know what they're talking about!​

 

[MotherJean]

Don't know where you are, Ladybuglives, or what your weather is like. I can tell you that I'm north of Seattle where it's been running ~60 daytime and ~45 at night. At four weeks my 6 Light Brahmas were starting to get crabby with each other in the brooder and I was getting crabby, too, for all the reasons noted. I finished the coop in record time, ran an outdoor extension cord to it, hung a 100w light inside for heat, and moved them out at 4 weeks. My coop is fairly small. Temps in the cool corners never dropped below 55. Right under the light it was 70. Now, I know that there's all sorts of folks on BYC who'll tell you that 4 wk old chicks need it warmer than 70...I'm here to tell you that the girls did just fine. No pile ups, no sickness, no deaths...yada, yada... I kept them confined to the coop for about 5 days while I finished their run. I turned them outside on the first sunny day with temp outside around 60 and they had a ball

It's been 3 weeks and it's all good - for me and the girls.

I have absolutely no regrets putting them out in the Big Girl House early, against the advice of the Nervous Nellies. You know, when I found out that most chicken moms pretty much stop brooding, ignore their chicks around 4 weeks, and go back to laying, I figured, why not me? I know that most of us backyard chicken folk tend to see our birds as pets instead of livestock, but seriously, do they really require the pampering so many on BYC practice?? I don't think so. JMHO

 

[JustOneMore]

I am laughing so hard at this thread. I grew up with 4-H chickens and thought those days were way behind me. As we were walking through TSC my partner turned and asked "Can we have chickens?". Why deprive one who was born and raised in the big city? So I said yes. We research everything before starting a project so we raced home to research breeds. We quickly found the My Pet Chicken site and that was, well, the beginning of the end!

What started as a plan to have 3 hens escallated at the click of a button opening a page for each new and wonderful breed.

With each trip to the MPC site plans for the coop were revised to allow for more birds.

The first order went in within 48 hours for 8 chicks, quickly followed by an order for 8 more, and a third for another 10.

The first order arrived a month ago, all healthy and happy, hopefully all pullets. I can't say enough about how pleased I am with the service we had from MPC and the hardiness of the chicks they sent to us. The next group is due in 2 weeks.

The coop is done and has a 4'x25' covered "privacy yard" for turning out little ones. We added a 25'x150' fenced yard around the perimeter so that once grown the girls can get some exercise during the day.

Yesterday I put the little ones out in a small pen within their future yard. They had a great time finding their first bugs ... yard candy!

I am having great fun with this project that was supposed to give my city slicker a look at "country" life. Now if I can just get her to stop asking "They won't peck my eyes out, will they?"

 

[kfchickenlady]

Yes, the catalogs are tough to ignore...and having room in the country to expand is dangerous....but there are worse addictions

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Not unless she slips on the mud in the run after some rainy days, falls flat on her back holding a feed pail, and the breath is knocked out of her. (Been there, done that.)

Nahhhh, they won't. What they WILL do, however, is stand all around whilst the bravest chicken steps on her chest and bends down to peer intently at the glasses all wonky on her face from the fall. This is, of course, if she wears glasses, as I do.

I was never afraid, but it did flash through my mind that it was a good thing I was carrying feed and wasn't immobilized through injury; those little velociraptors would otherwise have finished me off.

That was Winter. And yet, in the Spring, I buy more chicks. Huh. (I also set pavers into the run so I had non-slippery places to step!)

 

[kfchickenlady]

sorry to laugh, but you painted such a vivid picture

 

[ChicksNPigs]

Quote:
This is sort of my problem... I want ALL the different colors of eggs I can responsibly handle. This means MANY different breeds of chickens, and at least two more coops in the works. Hoefully that'll last a couple of years before I need to add more.
The man might have issues when the chicken houses are bigger than ours, so having a bunch of smaller houses will fix that, right?!

It's a darn good thing I don't have an incubator!

 

[Jamesofrich]

Quote: