Two Weeks Old!

The peepers are getting BIG! This picture is at 13 days compared to the fluff balls they were in the title picture above.

I even think I can tell which ones are the cockerels. Compare these two guys

and these girls (?)

It might just be varying growth rates but I'm thinking it's the beginnings of sexual dimorphism. The bigger ones are also spending more time flapping, getting airborne for a few feet at a time and stretching up tall and "dueling" with each other. They are FAST. And hungry! They go through a quart of feed a day approximately, though some is wasted. During the warm part of the day we are turning off the clear heat lamp and just leaving on the red one. One evening they must have been feeling a little too cool

See how they are all nearly all clustered in front of the red lamp? I turned the white one on and they quickly scattered themselves around, going out to get a drink or just explore the horse trailer. They had a tendency to bunch up in the acute corner, so I put a board across it. I have seen this before in corners but it was worse in the less than 90 degree angle. Makes me think a round or octagonal shape would be optimal in that respect.

Notice the screen under the water fount. It's helped reduce the amount of straw in the water by a large amount. They are using about a half gallon per day. The screen is 1/2 inch hardware cloth wire on cedar 1 by 2's.

I'm designing the hen house and getting many great ideas from Plamondon's reprint of Fresh-Air Poultry Houses. I can't recommend it enough; the style is kind of quaint and it can be repetitive but the earnestness and simply phenomenal amount of knowledge available is well worth study. There is MUCH to be learned from the agriculture of the early part of the 20th century. It was ALL organic for one thing and they valued soil fertility highly. The scale of everything in that pre-industrial era is much more similar to what we need in the coming post-industrial agricultural era.

Yummy worms!

The brooder held around 95F degrees last night with the outside temperature down into the low 40's with light rain and some wind. Today the two heat lamps are pushing it up closer to 100F so I opened up some ventilation. See how the chicks are avoiding the center of the brooder...

The thermometer is on top of the mason jar feeder so it is maybe 6 inches higher than the chicks themselves.

In the interest of being a good mother hen to these chicks I decided they needed to get a taste of the real world, so I brought in some composted horse manure with a little green grass and a bunch of worms that I dug out of one of the vegetable beds I'm supposed to be preparing. I figure these little birds are going to grow up to be the bug patrol so they should get imprinted on what's good to eat.

The first chick to pick up a worm couldn't quite figure out how to eat it but all the other chicks immediately wanted a bite, so she was mobbed. That pattern repeated and pretty quickly the technique of grabbing a worm and running away from the rest of the flock at top speed became the favorite. They quickly ate most of the visible worms, by pecking bites rather than the spaghetti slurp method. I felt kind of bad for the worms... but the peepers sure loved them!

I'll write a bit of backstory tomorrow; why chickens, why this particular breed, etc.

Chickens in the mail

At 8:00 yesterday morning Pat down at the Deer Harbor Post Office called, "Your baby chicks are here!"

Like the arrival of most babies these came before we were quite perfectly prepared but with a little last minute scrambling to create curtains for the brooder we were ready for them. The shipping box looked surprisingly small for 25 chicks!

 

When I got them home and opened up the box I found the Urchs had included an extra chick so I popped all 26 into the budget brooder. I built it from leftover and salvaged materials; an excellent insulated skylight I saved from the landfill last summer and leftover siding from my house. About all I had to purchase were the electrical boxes and the heat lamp. I used a damaged heavy duty extension cord for the wiring and some old denim from the rag bag for the curtains.

I duct taped plastic over the openings in the back of our horse trailer and added a (hopefully) rat proof barrier. I haven't seen any sign of rodents since I brought home Theo the Barn Cat.

So I guess he's doing his job! I have explained that baby chickens are NOT part of his compensation package...

This Spring has been incredibly early; warm and sunny in FEBRUARY is not typical! But yesterday it turned cool and rainy and I had to make run to Island Hardware for another heat lamp. One 250w and a spot just wasn't getting the temperature high enough. With 2 - 250w heat lamps, one red and one regular, it's 95F degrees in the brooder. I also had to add some boards around the base, effectively closing off the gap beneath the denim curtains.

The insulated skylight allows great viewing of the peepers! As you can see, they are not all clustered together, trying to stay warm, nor are they hiding in the corners trying to stay cool so I think the temperature is about right. The skylight/brooder is 40 inches square and should be big enough for these chicks for quite a while.

Cute aren't they!

It's amazing how precocious they are; drinking and pecking at the chick starter immediately. I am feeding organic chick starter. It costs about 50% more than non-organic but considering how little they eat, it seems well worth it to start them off right. 

 

Keep checking back for updates on the first generation of Heritage Black Java Chickens on Orcas Island!