Fourth week

Just growing and spending some time outside as the weather allows.

 

One funny thing did happen and its just because I am a newbie.  I brought the chicks in after a long day outside and noticed Penny had a huge lump on her neck.  I starting thinking about how to convince the hubby to let me go to the emergency vet.  I checked the other chicks and they had the same thing but a bit smaller.  I settled them inside and went to the web to do some research.  Yep they were just full up, their crop was full and they would digest it all over night.

Injury, repeated

So, about three weeks ago I stubbed my pinky toe so back I broke it. Its lovely, has turned every color in the rainbow and still cant wear shoes with comfort. Yesterday I stubbed the toe next to the pinky toe and now its dislocated/broken.

The Girls are 3 weeks old but I am going to talk about them at 2 weeks old

I really want to keep this updated so I am doubling down and going to make notes of what I remember last week.

The girls are starting to grow real feathers and loosing some of the fuzz, starting on wings then shoulders and tail.

I have plates for toddlers from Ikea that stack up and I have been raising the height of the waterer and feeder trying to keep the pine shavings out.  I am now three high on the feeder and use a medium pyrex bowl to raise the water.  I also put together a few large lego type toys for the girls to perch/jump on.

We also had a really nice day, mid 80s and sunny.  I put the girls outside in the coop for an hour and besides a few gust of wind they seemed to enjoy it.  I haven’t moved it off the deck yet.

That is Bean giving the a sniff.

Lily and friends, fur and feathered kind

Lily, my daughter, is 2 and will be 3 in May.  Her birthday is the same as my mom’s.  We took her home from the NICU at just over a week old, fostered her for 18 months and adopted her on December 18, 2012.  We celebrate her adoption day every year, she is our dreams come true.

Lily smile, dirty face

We have three dogs but she loves bossing Manny around the most.

My neighbors have a red-tail hawk nest in their yard, I haven’t gotten a good picture of the nest but here are the mated pair flying home.

There is a pond just over the fence and I found this feathered friend yesterday.

Update on food and coop

I got the new food for the chicks today, so happy to toss the old stuff out.

See the color difference?

I got both the starter

And the grower.  I will get layer, later.

I finally fixed the lid for the brooder, I cut out the center of the lid and then added hardware cloth to it using bolts and large washers.

 

The chicks are getting a lot of feathers on their wings and some on their tails.

Our first coop

We decided to get a smaller, kit coop to start with.  We will use it for juvenile chicks, sick home, and to have the ability to move it into the garage if a hurricane or other big storm comes.

We bought a Pawhut deluxe portable backyard chicken coop with fenced run and wheels, paid $200 including shipping for it.  I got it from www.rakuten.com although the prices seem to fluctuate often. 

The coop came in two boxes.

Here are all the pieces that came from the boxes, many screws not labeled but I was able to figure it out by count and logic.

Put the egg box together first.

Then added the walls to the coop.

 

Put the bottom and some roost bars in, I have an idea to make it a better summer coop but I will get into that later.

Now working on the run.

And then the final results, still have to fix a place to put it.

 

New Bedding

I changed the bedding the brooder from the pee pad to pine shavings (the type you get for your hamster at the pet store).  The girls look like they are enjoying the change.

I still need to get one more thing for the girls, grit.  Chickens don’t chew so they need a way to break down food to make it more digestible so they swallow small rocks called grit.  The grit, usually crushed granite, a byproduct of granite counters, is stored in the gizzard.  The gizzard can be thought of as a first stomach, I imagine a mouth with teeth, lol.  It ‘chews’ the food so that it can be digested.  The girls don’t need it right now as the chick starter feed is already broken down but before I switch them to grower feed or give any treats they will need grit.  There is a second type of grit but I will wait to talk about it when the girls start laying as they don’t need it till then and could be harmful if given before then.

Happy Valentines Day

Today we got chicks for the first time.

The city has a new 2 year trial ordinance that allows private homes to have 5 hens for eggs.  I took a chicken class and paid for my permit a few weeks ago, I have permit number 89.  We have spent the last couple of weekends going to feed stores looking at the different options for coops, food, brooder, etc. and here are some of the choices we made.

I chose a clear plastic storage container for my brooder, I plan to cut holes in the top lid and add hardware cloth so the chicks can’t jump out when I’m not home.  We got small purple feeder and water along with pine shavings for bedding and medicated chicken starter for food.  I also got a heat lamp and heat bulbs.

I decided to put the brooder in the guest bathroom tub and I used two leather leashes to hang the heat lamp so that I could adjust the height as to change the temperature as the chicks grow.  The first week of life the chicks should be 95deg F and each week the temperature should be lowered 5 degrees till room temperature and the chicks have their feathers.  If you have the temperature where the chicks are happy they will be napping in the ring around the heat lamp, if it is too hot they will be as far away as they can get and if too cold they will be right under the lamp.

For the first day I have the chicks on a puppy pee pad so they will learn what their food is and not eat the pine shavings.  I have decided against the medicated chick feed because the active ingredient is amprollium. This drug’s main purpose is to block thiamine uptake. All living things need thiamine – which is also known as vitamin B1 – in order to grow and be healthy.  I have ordered both chick starter and chick grower from www.scratchandpeck.com and will later buy the layer formula.  I like that it is corn free, corn raised the body temperature of the chicken and that’s the last thing I need in Florida.  It is also non-gmo and organic, love it.