Chicken Chronicles: Patio Livin'

More from the Chicken Chronicles... wherein the chicks take over the patio until the coop gets finished. Take it away, Lisa!

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Chicken Update!

May 12, 2001

Well, we have a little bit of sad news.  One of our little blue Ameraucanas didn't make it.  We had one that just wasn't getting any bigger and last week the size difference was pretty drastic so I was really worried.  And then one day it just couldn't hardly wake up and I couldn't get it to eat or drink and eventually it passed away.  Poor little thing!  I knew there was a good chance this would happen so I was prepared, but still a little heartbroken.  :-(

But the good news is that the rest of the 18 are doing great and getting BIG!!!  I love these silly chickens!  They are so fun to watch and listen to.  They are a lot of fun.  The other bad news though, the coop is still not finished!!!  And so all 18 chickens are still living in our house!  Haha - I'm almost embarrased to admit that!  What's worse is that I'm going to be a little sad when the day comes for them to go outside!  I had decided to move them out to the screened-in porch this weekend but WILL decided it was still too chilly at night.  So anyone that has heard Will talk about how they are my chicks, not his, and he has nothing to do with it knows the real story! 

Here's a couple of shots from this morning of us playing with some of our sweeties. Here's Liam with a Light Sussex - there are 3 and they are all the friendliest of the bunch by far.  They seek out attention and are little darlings.

Here's one of the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes.  They are also very friendly little buggers.

And a group shot from in the playpen.

The funniest new thing about them is that a couple of their voices are changing and now amid all the constant peeping is an occasional awkward big chicken cluck.  It cracks me up every time.  I'm now just waiting for my first little cock-a-doodle-doo!!  We have gotten a good bit done on the coop and if the weather cooperates hopefully by the weekend the run will at least be finished enough for outdoor playtime.  Anyone of you handy folks feel like coming over this weekend????

The Big Chicks Move Outside!

May 20, 2011

So last night we finally bit the bullet and moved our big 6 week old chicks outside.  I really needed to clean out their pen and thought that even though I had wanted to move them out in the morning rather than at night, I just needed to do it.  Will was funny and pulled up the weather and decided we should wait until Sunday just to be sure.  So we agreed on that and I went to get them all cleaned out.  But as soon as I was about to add the new bedding I just couldn't stand it.  The mess and dust in our kids' playroom was just overwhelming and I decided they had to go.  So Will helped me move the pen out to the screened-in porch and we cranked up their heat emitter and moved them out!  

The Light Sussex chicks are still the friendliest of the bunch.  Always very curious!

They settled in quickly and I even had to turn the heat down a bit.  I guess we were silly worrying so much!  This morning the chicks were doing great and I love having them on the porch.  I can open up the top and let them fly out to come and play.  And we can watch them from inside and see what they're up to.  They are so fun!  Here's a little of our morning play time.

This little one was just taking off to fly over to the couch.  Liam cracks up and gets so excited when they fly around!

My beautiful Blue Laced Red Wyandotte.  But, a boy.  Booooooo.  I think he is the prettiest of the whole bunch and I'm bummed he's a boy.  I hope to find him a really good home though.

I love how curious they are.  This girl is saying "Hmmm... what's going on in there?"

The other 4 are still inside and are getting their feathers VERY slowly, so it will be a while before they go out.  But the dust from 4 chicks is way more manageable than from 18!!!  Now if we can just get that coop finished the big chicks will be ready in no time!

In other news, we are very excited for the Henside the Beltline Tour D'Coop tomorrow!  If you are looking for a fun, family friendly outdoor activity this weekend you should check it out at www.tourdcoop.com!  Hope to see you there!

Lisa's not-quite-Backyard Chicken update!

While I'm recovering from a weekend of laid-back girly goodness with my college crew, I thought I'd hand the blog over to my sister, who has some chicken updates for you! Take it away, Lisa!

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Chick Update!

April 18, 2011

Our 1st set of chicks are getting big!  They have the most beautiful wing feathers coming in and little bitty tail feathers.  They have become very friendly little things, too!  As soon as we open the brooder they're jumping all over us hoping we have treats for them. 

And big, huge, gigantic thanks to our friends Steve and Danyelle for lending us their generator during the crazy storm!  A tornado went through extremely close to our house and the power was out from about 3:30 on Saturday until 4 on Sunday.  I was so worried about our chicks and the eggs on lockdown in the incubator getting too cold, but thanks to them all the big chicks and at least one of our little Ameraucanas are doing well!  Here's the 1st little hatchling at about 5:00 this morning!

I keep staring at the incubator anxiously waiting for some sign of life from any of the other eggs, but nothing yet.  I don't really have a plan if none of the others hatch and don't know what I'll do with one lonely little hatchling!  Here's hoping at least one more hatches!  And so far this little "girl" is looking to have the most beautiful coloring and was hatched out of the very bluest egg!  I'm feeling very lucky to have any at all but this poor little thing really needs a friend!

The coop has finally made a bit more progress also.  We put up our 1st section of hardware cloth!  All this crazy weather and crazy kid stuff has delayed progress, but hopefully we can make up for lost time. 

Here's a couple more cute chick shots.  I am so in love with these babies!!!

I love this action shot!

On a sad note my one little Cochin egg did not hatch.  So sad!  But hopefully there will be Cochins in our future one way or another!  We'll see!  In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for the other 6 little tornado eggs!!!


19 Chicks!
April 27, 2011

Well, my lone little Ameraucana didn't stay lonely too long.  He had 4 little buddies hatch also!  One turned out to not be an Ameraucana, but a cute chubby little Easter Egger - which is a blue egg laying mixed breed.  She had a 50% chance of being what is called "frizzled" but looks to just be a normal smooth feathered little chick.  A sweet and friendly one though!  Here are a few pics of the new cuties from the past week!

Here they are when first moved to their brooder (formerly known as my homemade hatcher!) - the one standing and glaring at the camera is the first hatched, now known as "Stevie" thanks to our friend that kindly loaned us his generator to save my little chickies!  He has grown on me now, but nearly got the boot.  He was a very unfriendly and naughty chick the first couple of days of his little mini-rooster life.  I am 100% sure he is going to turn out to be a he.  Well, maybe I should say 99% just in case since I don't really know what I'm talking about and all!!!  He is going to be black and the others are all blue!
Here's one of the blues a couple days ago.

Here's my little Easter Egger!  So sweet!  She (I'm hoping!) will also lay blue eggs!

So in this brooder I don't have a fancy ceramic heat emitter so the poor little guys have a light on them 24 hours a day.  I decided to give them a little stuffed bear that they can climb under to get out of the light and sleep just like a little mama hen and not only does it work great, but it makes for a whole lotta cuteness!!!!

Here you can see their little wing feathers are already coming in.  They are going to be such a pretty color!

Now onto the big kids!  They were starting to get cramped in their old brooder and able to fly up onto the sides so last week we moved them up into their new home!  Here they are before the move getting a treat of cucumber.  They were so cute.  Not sure what to do with it but one would finally be brave and grab a piece and all the others would start chasing it around and they'd steal it from each other.  They had fun!

And then now here they are in their new digs! They love the room to fly and chase each other around.

Here's a pic of them from just last night.  Aren't they getting big and very chickeny!?!

And here's my big boy.  He is a Welsummer and his comb is HUGE!  He runs around with his neck all stretched out long and tells everybody who's boss.

This is one of the two little black Orpingtons.  They are cuties and the smallest and least feathered of the group.

The top left corner is one of the *girl* Welsummers (I hope!) and 2 of the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes.

And one of the three Sussex.  They are funny and the most inquisitive of the group.  They are all very fascinated with Bella dog and get right up to her nose through the playpen.  Too cute!

 

And as for the coop, with the crazy couple of weeks we've had with Lucas having a little procedure done, Liam breaking his leg, then getting sick, STILL not being able to walk, and the dozen or so doctor appointments to go along with all of this, we just haven't gotten much done. There are 2 sides of the run kinda almost done, but that's it. We desperately need to get working on it because these chickens are getting bigger by the day!!! Just how long can you go living with almost 20 chickens in your house???????? If Will doesn't get cracking I guess we'll find out!!!!! Honestly, I enjoy them being where we can watch them.  I love listening to their little noises and being able to check in on them constantly. They are really quite low maintenance and I am discovering that chickens are my zen. I highly recommend the website www.backyardchickens.com if any of you are getting sucked in by this chicken cuteness and considering starting your own flock!!!!

Birthday chicks

It's this chick's birthday today, so what's more fitting than to celebrate a gaggle of other chicks' birthdays, too? I'm off to spend my birthday sanding and painting in the house, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. To birthday chicks!!!

(Some background on Chicken Watch... Parts 1, 2, and 3)

The first-born (like me!):



Here's a video of the first-born just out of the egg. My sister is crushed that she wasn't home when her first chick hatched. Listen to my brother-in-law tell her what's happening on the phone... (which is hilarious if you know Will).

Baby #2!

Here's a video of the second chick hatching. It's long but worth the wait. Funny cameos of babies and dogs are a bonus.

Things got crazy for a while there... here's Baby #7!

Eleven chicks!

Ridiculous cuteness

No words.

This little guy has hair like my nephew.

14 out of 16 eggs hatched, and now they're out of the incubator and into their "brooder." Pretty sweet digs!

Chicken Watch: Eggs on Lockdown!

This is Part 3 of my sister Lisa's journey to be a "chicky mama," from finding a coop to hatching her own eggs. Catch up with Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.

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April 6, 2011

Chicken Update: The 1st Set of Eggs is in LOCKDOWN!!!

 OHMYGOODNESS.  I am a nervous wreck!  As of 2:00 today my 1st set of 16 eggs are in the hatcher on lockdown!!!  What is lockdown, you might ask?  Well, for the past 18 days the eggs have been in my incubator getting turned 5 times a day at a humidity level of around 40% where they have been taken out and candled often.  If being hatched the old fashioned way a mother hen would be getting up to eat, stretch, and poop so having the eggs come out of the incubator for brief periods isn't that big of a deal.  But now, they have been moved into my homemade hatcher where there is a strict hands-off policy and the humidity level has been upped to about 65%.  Here they are!

And getting the silly eggs in the hatcher was not as easy as it seems like it should've been.  I've read a lot about folks using these pulp egg trays to keep the earliest chicks that hatch from playing kickball with the remaining eggs and decided it was the way to go.  I got lucky and scored a whole huge box of them off of craigslist from a super nice couple and will now be set once these eggs turn into my lovely egg-laying hens!  It also helps keep them more in the position they were incubated which will hopefully make for easier hatching.  Anyway, so I put all of my eggs into the pulp tray and then realized I was not going to be able to simply carry it to the hatcher and stick it in.  Visions of my perfectly developing baby chickens crashing on the ground went racing through my mind.  So plan b took much longer.  And much longer meant my perfectly heated hatcher got cold.  So from what I've read the eggs cooling for about 20 minutes is about the longest you really want to let them go.  So here I am watching the clock tick away, staring at the thermometer that is just not rising quickly enough.  15 minutes later I start to panic.  The hatcher does have an adjustable heating pad underneath so there is a bit of an adjustment, but on full blast it was not going to cut it.  So I ran upstairs, grabbed my blow dryer, and it only took about 45 seconds to get that thermometer up to 100 degrees!  It cut the humidity, but I knew my trusty froggy humidifier wouldn't have any trouble getting it up there.  Wpheeewwww.  It was right at about 20 minutes and I nearly had a heart attack!  But now, almost 2 hours later, we're happily at the perfect temp and humidity.

Here's a quick look at the rest of my eggs in the incubator.  I'm down to 4 Cochin eggs of which I only think 1 really stands a chance at hatching and 7 blue Ameraucana eggs of which ALL are developing nicely!!!  And although I am very sad about my Cochin eggs I am happy to say that I contacted the seller and they refunded me for the eggs.  So at least there's that!  I've decided to see how these hatches go and then decide if I want to try again with another set of Cochin eggs - this time from a more reputable source!  Here they are!

And just for fun as I was laughing at myself and how I've totally gone off the deep end obsessing over chickens and staring at my thermometer and hygrometers, I thought some of you may have wondered, "How exactly does one incorporate a chicken hatcher into their decor?"  So here she is! 

Will is truly a tolerant husband.  Never did he even blink at the idea that I was going to move my huge aquarium-turned-chicken-egg-hatcher into our family room.  Now that's love. 

Here's to what will hopefully be a very exciting next post!!!!

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Maggie again. How exciting is this process?! Chicks are coming into the world right.this.minute... I can't tell you how much I wish I was home to cheer them on! As soon as Mama Chicky can step away from her new babies, post some video and photos and write an update, I'll post it here!

Chicken Watch: Incubation!

This is Part 2 of my sister Lisa's journey to be a "chicky mama," from finding a coop to hatching her own eggs. Catch up with Part 1 here.

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March 21, 2011

We Have EGGS!

Wooo Hoooo! The chickens are officially on their way. Last Friday I received my 1st hatching eggs! They got here at noon and to my surprise the wonderful seller sent me 8 EXTRAS!!! Here are my eggs straight out of the box! I stupidly hadn't thought to save any egg cartons so I used what I could find in my excitement. Or should I say... EGGcitement!!!!! Haha - I know, I'm a dork.

And here they are "resting" on top of my awesome new incubator to let the air sac settle in the fat end of the egg after shipping. Shipped eggs can be troublesome so here's hoping that they're going to be ok.

And Saturday at 7:00 into the bator they went!!!

 So in the photo below from left to right are the following eggs: 3 Black/Lavender Orpingtons, 6 Welsummers, 3 Coronation/Light Sussex, 4 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, and 4 French Black Copper Marans!!!

My incubator is doing a fantastic job and I have high hopes for my eggs. However, remember all of those great big fluffy legged chickens I showed you pictures of?? Well... they were supposed to get here at the same time and all the eggs were going to incubate together. However, those eggs were delayed and just shipped out today!!! This creates a big problemo for me. I had to set these eggs so they wouldn't get too old. BUT, the last 3 days of incubation you have to go through a seperate process than the rest of the incubation period, which I can't do with younger eggs in the incubator. SO, I decided to try my hand at making a homemade hatcher. Here's what I've come up with and as of today it is holding both temperature and humidity PERFECTLY!!!!! We'll see how things continue, but I've got 16 days to get it just right. Here she is!

This hatcher is set up in our family room so even though it was a bit of a pain it will be more spacious for the little chicks that hatch and will be very convenient for hatch watching! Oh, I hope they hatch! If all goes well we are looking at baby chicks starting to hatch the weekend of April 9/10!!! Whoooopppppiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!!!

Oh, but not a lot of progress on the coop this weekend. Too much darn basketball. But, I did manage to get together a nice sketch and materials list and priced out some things at Lowes. We neeeded to figure out our roofing and a few other things. So not a total loss! But HELLO, we have chicks on the way at this very moment! We need a coop!!!!!!

Stay tuned!!!!!!!

March 28, 2011

Quickie Chicken Update

Well... not a lot to report. Just a bunch of turning eggs, candling them just for fun, making coop plans, etc. However, I did totally score with a Craigslist find!!! ALL of this treated lumber was FREE!!!!!

Reusing materials and spending less money are two very good things!

And then, here's our last set of eggs! They just arrived today and will go in the incubator tomorrow. Aren't they purty!?!?

These are 7 beautiful pure blue, black, and splash Ameraucana eggs. And I am so nervous about them! This stupid freezing cold weather that they've traveled through, combined with a Sunday stay in postal never-neverland has me a bit worried. They were really cold to the touch when they arrived. I hope they hatch!!!!!!

And last bit of progress - I ordered my organic chicken feed today! I've decided on using Countryside Organics (www.countrysidenatural.com) after reading nothing but wonderful things about their products and luckily there is a supplier right here in the area - Horseshoe Bend Farm! I have my order in that will hopefully last through our first four months of chicken raisin'!

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have exciting coop progress to report and then less than two weeks till my first batch of chicks is due!!! Oh boy!

April 4, 2011

Chicken Coop Update! :-)

We have progress! With lots of help from Lane and Nicole (my brother and future sister-in-law) we made some headway this past weekend! All of the posts for the run are up! We have a trench well on its way around the run to help keep the run from becoming a muddy mess when it rains, and big pile o' gravel to fill it up with. Here's how it's looking!

Impressive, huh!?

So as far as our chicken eggs go we have both good news and bad. My first set of 20 eggs is down to 16. Not bad! Those 16 are looking good and will be going into "lockdown" in my homemade hatcher in just 2 DAYS!!! And their big hatch day is Saturday! Could be earlier, could be later, but somewhere around this weekend we should have baby chicks!!! Woohoo!!! My next group of eggs is my Cochin eggs. Started as 17, then down to 14, and now down to a little old 8. And of those 8, I really only feel like 3 of them have a chance. All that we cracked open showed no signs of fertility. I'm pretty bummed about them, but it seems this is the way it can go with hatching eggs sometimes. We'll see how many healthy chicks hatch in total and then I'll decide if I'm up for trying another round of cochins or not. My last set of eggs are the 7 beautiful blue Ameraucana eggs. And I'm happy to say they are all looking good so far!

Now off to AgriSupply with Will. We're going to make the most of this gorgeous day and get a little done out there! Wish us luck!!

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Maggie again. Isn't this exciting?! Next up: eggs on LOCKDOWN!