Crooked Leg - Dec 26 2010 - Jan 25 2011

Crooked Leg didn't make it.  He had been getting weaker and weaker by the day.  The move to the lower level didn't help, but I don't think he would have last too much longer anyway.

He was still alive when I got home from work, but wouldn't accept any food and only a little bit of water.  I put him back in the brooder and went to have dinner and watched TV. When I went to check on the chickens a few hours later like I do every night (to tuck them in, so to speak) he was in the same spot, but he had died.  When I took him out of the brooder he was still a little warm, so I'm guessing he passed some time around 8pm or so.

Over the past two days, I've been researching the fastest/most humane way to cull a chick.  There are many ways to do it (some kind of gruesome, some not so bad).  Ultimately, I didn't have to pick one of them.  When the time comes to have to cull a chick in the future, I think I know which method I would use.  I will definitely not wait so long as that is not really fair to the chick or me.

For the Office Skeptic - you can keep eating meat now.  You don't have to think about what I may or may not have had to do.

RIP, Crooked Leg/Neck

They Grow Up So Fast (part 2)

The chicks I hatched are four weeks old and the turkens are now six weeks old.  They are thriving and getting big (except Crooked Leg).

Mystery chick at four weeks.

Aussie at four weeks.
Still the smallest Australorp.

I've got them trained so whenever they see me, they start looking for food and treats.  They are even to the point where they let me pet them and/or pick them up.  Some are still skittish, but most aren't.

Red @ four weeks

Turkens @ six weeks

Random chick that though the

camera strap was something tasty.

Crooked Leg (nee Neck) Update

Crooked Leg isn't digging the new digs so much.

In the plastic bins, he didn't have to go far to get to the food, water and to stay warm.  In the new brooder, these things are spread out more so he has to work a little harder to get what he needs.  He peeps pretty much all the time (or at least I can hear him even before I go into the garage - yes, I can recognize his peep).

He has a really hard time getting around.  My attempts at fixing his legs haven't worked.  He's not strong enough to stand on the one good leg, and the other one just drags behind.  He pulls himself around with the one good leg, and flaps his wings to help get moving.  It seems like he expends a lot of energy doing this.  He's about a third the size of his clutch-mates.  All his intake goes towards the energy needed to get around.

I'm a bad flock steward and need to make a tough decision soon.

Moving Day

The chicks are no longer living in the lower level of the house.  The new brooder and chickens moved to the sub-garage on Saturday (1/22).  They seemed to adapt pretty quickly after the initial shock of being shut into their plastic bins for the 90 second journey into the cold.

I was initially concerned about the temps down there.  They were used to 70 degree temps in the house.  It was a consistent 40 degrees with a heater running in the garage.

Brooder set up

I rigged up the heat lamp, moved the heater next to the brooder, and blocked in the corner of the brooder where the chicks will hang out to try to keep the heat in.  I checked on them every couple of hours over the weekend.  The temp at the ground level is around 55 degrees in their corner. They huddle together when they aren't roaming around and scratching for food, jumping up on the roosts, and doing other chicken things.

With the move, all the chickens are now living together.  It was interesting to note that the two turkens hang out together, and the other 12 hang out together.  The only real exception so far is Mystery Chick.  It goes and hangs out near the turkens from time to time.  The turkens like to hang out in the right corner, opposite the heat.  I'm not a chicken behaviorist so I'm not going to try to understand what's going on.   As long as everyone is eating, drinking and not pecking at each other, then it's all good.

New Birds

I think I may have started a new addiction.  But I promise I won't get to the point of hoarding (see episode 40).

Last Saturday (January 8), I acquired two new chickens.  They were 4

week old Turken (or Naked Neck) mutts.  The best guess from the message boards is they were crossed with Leghorns based on some of the other characteristics.  I don't know.  Maybe.  I just think they're kinda cool looking.  Keep reading to find out why I know they are mutts.

How does one find Naked Neck chickens in the middle of winter in Minnesota?  Craig's List.  I was doing a random search for coops/sheds/playhouses - something I can get relatively inexpensively to house the chickens once they outgrow their brooder and keep them safe

from predators/etc.  Instead of finding a home, I found new chickens. 

The guy (I'll call him the Random Russian) said he had a few of the breeds I would like to have in my flock - Turkens, Chantecler (because they are very cold hardy), and Brahmas (I think they are cool because of the feathered feet).
On a side note, I've decided the direction for my flock is going to go in a different direction.  At first I just wanted dual purpose chickens (both egg layers and good for meat) that were docile and good egg producers.  Now, I've decided I want cool looking chickens.  If I could have roosters, that would be much easier to accomplish, but with hens, they don't get the great coloring that the boys do. 

Back on topic....During the course of our e-mail exchanges, I asked if he had some Chanteclers, Turkens and Brahmas.  He said he had Turkens and Brahmas.  I thought, great.  Two more breeds I wanted to add to my growing flock.  He explained he'd have some Chanteclers in the spring.  I told him I'd be interested when they hatched out. 

After a few e-mail exchanges (which I am know discovering that the person I was dealing with did not use English as his first language), I told him I would like the Turkens and Brahmas.  He said he didn't have any Brahmas.  My bad, I thought, but I still decided to drive up to Blaine and pick up a couple of Turken chicks.  Before heading up there, I was trying to figure out how he kept chickens in Blaine.  Is there farm land?  I didn't think so, but what do I know

I enlisted a friend of mine to go with me on the trip to Blaine.    You never know with this Craig's List stuff who you may run into.  I had to promise her I would go out for cocktails the night before, so she stayed in the guest room so we'd be ready to go early. 

I readied a box with some pine shavings and we left on the 45 minute road trip at 8:15. I met the Random Russian at his home - which turned out to be just a regular house in the middle of a suburban sub-division - and he directed me to wait outside the garage.  Ah...now it is making sense.

He opened the garage door, we slid in - keeping an eye on the neighbors so we didn't look too shady.  In a corner of the garage was a pretty sweet set up for the chicks he was trying to sell.  It's what gave me the idea for my brooder.  Anyway, in the brooder are a bunch of chicks.  Right away I noticed one of the Turkens had feathery legs.  That's not right. 

Then it dawned on me that when he was telling me what breeds he had, the Brahma was a rooster only.  This lead me to the conclusion that all his chickens were actually mutts.  The Random Russian confirmed this over a couple of exchanges about how he kept his flock - the boys/girls all roamed together - he didn't keep his breeds separate.  No big deal.  The chicks were still pretty cool looking.  

Now I'm up to 14 chickens.  Based on the size of the combs on some of them, I think I have five boys in my original batch(es).  I'll know more in a couple of weeks as more feathers come in and I can post pictures on the message boards to get help from the experts.

To help feed my new addiction, I will be going to a chicken swap in New Ulm in a few weeks to see if anyone has any of the other breeds I'm looking to get.  In addition to the Brahmas or Chateclers, I'd like to get Wyandottes (preferably Blue Laced Red), Black Copper Marans (they aren't very cold hardy, but if someone local has them, then I can ask questions about their line), or Ameraucanas (they aren't particularly neat looking, but produce colored eggs) or their crosses.  Ameraucanas produce blue eggs, but crosses - called Easter Eggers - do produce blue and green shades.  I also like Plymouth Rock (the Barred variety) and Opringtons (the buff one).

New Brooder

Trying to escape.

The chickens are outgrowing the plastic bins much faster than I expected.   The little chicks were starting to use their new wing feathers and jumping off the food tray and whatnot. 

Because I didn't have a good lid on the brooders, one of the chicks got free.  Not a big deal, really, except I didn't notice until I was letting the dogs into the "chicken room" to let them outside.  All of a sudden, there's a little chick freaking out with the dogs hovering over it. 

I was able to corral the dogs outside and get the chick back to the relative safety of its home.  Not without taking a picture first, of course.  The next day, the same thing happened again.  Not sure if it was the same chick, but for now the bins have a baby gate sitting on top of them.

The new chickens were probably feeling cramped from the get-go.

Also, there is an odor issue cropping up.  Yes, chickens can smell, but I had just changed the shavings on Monday (Jan 10) and already had to do it again on Saturday (Jan 15) for the group of 12.

My theory is it is the dogs. Or at least one dog in particular that is not helping things out.  The dogs (i.e. Kenny) keeps jumping up at the table - he really wants to get to the chickens.  But since he's small, he only end up bumping the table and spilling the water over into pine shavings.  Because of this, the shavings get very wet, very fast and therefore are not able to absorb the chicken poo as well as they should.

All that said, it is time to move the chickens out of the living quarters.  A new brooder was built.  It is 4' x 4' x 30".   If I only had four chickens, this would be a big enough home for them permanently.  Since I have more, it will be a temporary home until the permanent coop is built this spring.

Before I can move the chickens in, I still need to build a food/water platform after work tonight and fashion a couple of roosts.  (I would have finished yesterday, but the battery in the circular saw ran out of juice).  Pictures will be posted once the final product is complete.

New Feathers



Red feathering out nicely.

I'm constantly amazed at the rapid growth/maturity of the chicks.  Wing feathers are almost completely in.  Shoulder and tail feathers are starting to come in on most of them, too.  I swear every morning they are bigger.  And when I get home from work, they have more feathers than they did 12 hours before.

Aussie is still pretty small,
but feathering nicely, too.






Red spreading his wings and learning to fly.

I'm Legal

I finally got the permit from the city yesterday (1/4/11).  I've been legally able to have up to 20 chickens since Monday, January 3, 2011.

The permit process itself gives me pause.  I'm still trying to figure out why the permit cost so much when all the provisions listed in it I provided to the city council, the city planner and the city forrester.  I should have been able to save that money and provided the necessary paperwork directly to the city. 

Consulting is a racket.  I need to get in that line of work. 

Dogs and Chickens, part 3



Devil Dog



Kenny showed me today how he got up on the table and into the brooder.  Before today, there wasn't as much room where the wood storage is.  The chimneys were cleaned today for the first time in years and the first fire was built in the house since moving in.  With the extra room, Kenny was able to easily get a closer eye on the chicks. 

The glow from the heat lamp really makes him look naughty.

No More Crooked Neck

It's not what you think. 

Crooked Neck's neck is no longer crooked.  After a couple of days of massaging his neck a few times a day, he is no longer flopping over on his back. 

Crooked Leg (nee Neck) showing off
his new bandage.

However, he now has a splayed, or spraddled, leg.  I followed the instructions on how to fix it based on the link.  But I think I may have taken action too late.  When I put the adhesive bandages on (couldn't say Band Aid (tm) since it is a brand name) he was kind of lopsided.  The week or so of being Crooked Leg caused him to build up strength in one drumstick, I mean leg, and the other was a little lame.  He'll have the bandage on for a few days to see if he starts to walk normally. 

If I were a better steward of my flock, I don't think Crooked Leg would still be with us.  This doesn't bode well for when it comes time to send the chicks to freezer camp.

Oh and I have started to use he for my pronoun to describe the chickens now instead of it even though I have no clue what sex any of them are yet.  I should know in the next few weeks as more feathers come in. 

Worm Suicide

I was being harrassed by the Office Skeptic last week (nothing new there).  He was complaining that I hadn't written about the worms.  It has been all chickens, all the time. 

It's not like I have been ignoring the worms.  I look in on them daily.  I find they like banana peels the best of everything I've put in there.  Any time there are banana peels, I know where the majority of the worms are. It's a big gross looking pile, but kinda cool, too.

Also, I was way premature and added the second level onto the worm bin.  I thought I could move one of the banana peels with all the worms to the upper floor and they could start to work up there while the rest finished working downstairs.  Wrong.  All the worms decided to move upstairs.  Not sure why, but they did.

Anyway, over the holiday weekend (Friday I believe), I noticed dead worms on the table and floor around the worm bin.  I figured when I took the second layer off to check on the bottom layer, that some may have fallen through.

I picked up the dead, dried worms off the floor and went about my business.  I checked back later that night and found more worms on the floor.  I got to these ones in time so I was ble to put them back.  The next morning, I went about fixing the problem.  I found that on the edges of the lower level, between the newspaper and wall of the bin, there were hundreds of worms that got stuck during the great migration north.  I'm not sure how or why they got to wehre they were - no dirt or food - but there they were. 

I went about moving all the worms from the lower bin, setting new newspaper in there, so the paper went up over all four edges.  I got them moved back in, new shredded wet paper over them and some fresh veggies to go with them.   I would go in and check on them every couple of hours to see if I missed anything and whether there were more suicides.  All seemed right in the world.

Until last night.  There were a number of little dried worms sitting on the table this morning.  Didn't have time to look into where they are getting out, but I'm hoping there aren't more when I get home tonight.

Now, With 50% More Chickens

I was reading message board posts over the New Year's holiday weekend and found someone locally who hatched some chicks that she wasn't expecting.  Apparently, the person she bought her eggs from mixed up two different flavors in the batch.  She ended up getting some Australorp chicks to hatch that she didn't want.  She ended up having four chicks that were hatched on 12/27-28 - so they were roughly the same age as my chicks. 

I sent her a private message and told her I would take them off her hands if she didn't want to keep them. After trading a few messages, we agreed to meet (roughly) half way between where we lived - in Pine Island, MN at the Kwik Trip on Monday since I had taken an extra day off for the holiday.

I underestimated how long it would take me to get there and was 5 minutes late.  She was cool about it, and was waiting there with her daughter. 

We exchanged pleasantries in the parking lot and she handed me a chirping shoe box.  I opened the lid to see the four chicks just kinda hanging out.  They seemed content and looked healthy.

After our exchange, we said good bye to each other and I told her if she gets any more Australorp chicks with her next batch of eggs, I may want to take them from her. 

Now, Pine Island is a small town.  I think there was one stop sign in the city that I noticed.  Looking at the map, I wasn't exactly sure how to get out of town - I didn't think the exit off the highway that I took to get to town had a return going back north.  But there was a definite exit another 1/2 mile down the road.  I was going to take that out of town. 

The lady I got the chicks from pulled out of the parking lot first.  Then I pulled out going in the same direction (south) instead of heading back north.  I figured since they were from east of Rochester, I would follow them back to the highway.  Short of that, I would look for the sign that would point me back to the highway. 

They were driving down Main Street, and I saw a sign for county road 11 - which I thought was the exit from the highway.  And was the street the Kwik Trip was on. But they continued on down the road.  I drove through the downtown area of Pine Island - very cute little town - following the lady.   After about a mile, and the road curved away from the highway, and I'm sure she thought I was now a stalker and was going to follow her back to her home. To avoid police intervention, I realized I had to turn around and go back the way I came. 

So after a five minute detour, I was on my way back home.  No police in the rear view on the way home.  Just snow and fog.

I got home and introduced the chicks to my existing flock. 

All 12 huddled in a corner

After a few minutes of the Rhode Island Red pecking at a couple of them, the new chicks were accepted and have fully integrated with the others.  I now have 12 chickens brooding in the basement.