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.