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.