Moving Day

I went about my normal routine that I do every weekend.   I am always up by 630am if not earlier, the product of having to get up at 4am every day during the week.  I do my thing and head out to the chickens.  I give both the old hens and the babies scratch grains and we all chat about what is new and the latest gossip.

I got around to the babies nursery building and I peeked in and what do you know....way in the back of the  nursery I spied this:

Well this sparked  a whole laundry list of things to do!  I had to call the U-Haul company, call the phone, water, and TV companies to have service stopped.  So much to do!  I had to scramble eggs!  So much to do so little time.  Not to mention it is hotter than all get out.

I finished chatting with the chickens and hand feeding them some grass and then headed inside to start things rolling.

I  cooked up a little more than a dozen eggs.  Why you may ask?  There is a good reason.  I gave the older hens the scrambled eggs to fill their bellies (ok ok their gizzards) with protein.  This will discourage pecking when we integrate the babies into the big coop with them.  The eggs and protein also  seem to make the hens a little more docile and easier going.  This will help the introduction go smoother.

I woke up my hubby, and son and had a good breakfast, while we talked about how to move the babies with as little trauma  as possible.  We devised and plan and out the door we went.  First we had to get all the babies into their nursery.  Then we had to keep them there while we closed off their pop door.  To do this we just stapled some chicken wire over the pop door opening.  Then I picked up all the bricks holding down the big blue tarp and took out all the stuff from inside their nursery.

Together the three of us slowly picked up the nursery and we walked it to a new location out of the mud and chicken poo.  The babies were not too cooperative so we decided not to try to walk them around to the big coop door as we had planed.  Instead we took off the top of the nursery and I started grabbing birds.  I would quickly grab a chicken and hand her off to my Son who would carry her over to the coop where Hubby was manning the door.  We did this over and over, one by one, chicken by chicken for all 25.  It took some time and I only got pooped on once, and bit once.  Not too bad considering I was really scaring them.  No chickens (or people) were harmed during this process.  Although, I was wing slapped in the face a few times.  Thankfully I did not loose my glasses!

Once we had them all in the main run, I filled their waters while the boys mixed their feed.  Just like changing a dog's food you want to mix the old with the new  - we had to mix the chick feed with the layer feed.  I then slowly corralled all the birds from the run into the coop, and we shut the pop door for about an hour.  Since our babies were used to using a pop door they knew how it worked and knew that beyond the pop door was either shelter or a yard depending which way they were going.

They were hot and they duked it out a little bit but all in all the hour they were locked in together with the old hens seemed to go well.  While they were locked up, we quickly dismantled the nursery and set the pieces behind the coop to wash off in the rain - should we get any- and to get it out of the site of the babies.  Out of site out of mind.  They will forget they had a different home and will only know their new home as their only home.  We left the fencing up for now.  It was too hot by this time and I was melting into a gross puddle in my insulated boots.

We also found out that our one mystery chick in indeed a roo.  He has been crowing for a few weeks now.  He is aggressive when I had feed them grass but he has not tried to attack - yet.  He seemed pretty docile when I grabbed him to move him.  Maybe he will be a nice roo.....hey a girl can hope!

Now I have to find some of the golf balls we have laying around to put in the nest boxes.  Why golf balls you ask?  Well the golf balls with look like eggs to the chickens and it will teach the babies where to lay their eggs - in the nest boxes.  It works quite well.  This way using golf balls I can keep collecting the eggs several times a day so they don't get trampled but still leave a visual learning aid for the new hens.

 I only have one new hen laying so far but the rest will start soon.  This is kinda early for them.  We got these peeps April 4, 2011, and today July 31, 2011, 3.5 months later, they are starting to lay.  The new eggs will be pretty tiny bit totally whole.  Soon they will start laying huge eggs and double and triple yolks while their bodies figure things out and they settle into a laying routine.  Now a new issue starts for me - soon I will be getting up to 32 eggs A DAY!  I need to order some egg cartons....and make a sign for the road.....and buy a bigger fridge...make more cookies, cakes, and goodies.  oh my.

Peeps are getting Big!

I had to clean out the brooder the other day.  I just could not stand the smell any more.  Having baby chickens in the basement is not the best set up.  Thankfully it is only for 2 months then we will move them out to the nursery outside until they are laying age.  Then they will be integrated into the coop with the rest of the chickens.

Cleaning out chicken litter from the basement is kinda tough.  I have to first open up the full brooder and shoo all of the peeps to the back new half, then block it back up while I clean out the front half.  To clean out the front half I have to use a flat head shovel and scoop up all the litter and put it into a big much bucket.  Then I have to carry the full muck bucket up the bilco steps and all the way down to the compost pile....again and again.  It took me about 4 or 5 trips back and forth to get all the litter cleaned out.

While I had the time I throughly cleaned the watering can while dear husband put down fresh pine shavings.  We added another set of blocks under the food and water to raise them up.  This will keep things cleaner for them.

We also added an 8 foot long perch for them.  It is a little high for them right now, but soon enough they will be all over it.

The peeps are growing like weeds!  The Easter Eggers are starting to get their fuzzy cheeks.

The White Lace Wyandotts are getting white heads and starting to lace out.

The Black Astrolopes are shiny and black.

I think I have figured out that the two mystery chicks are actually Red Laced Wyandotts.  They are pretty that is for sure.

The yellow/white peeps that I thought were the mystery peeps are turning out to be Easter Eggers.  They have the fuzzy cheeks like the rest of them.  It will be interesting to see what color eggs they will lay.  My last Easter Eggers both laid green eggs but one would lay an army olive drab egg while the other would lay a bright light green egg.  I hope these Easter Eggers have a range of colors and hoe to have a blue layer.

I think all the peeps are looking great.  Some will argue that they are ugly and look like little dinosaurs.  They are almost all feathered out and are getting more inquisitive every day.  They are starting not to run from me, and are actually starting to take an interest in me as I feed and water them every day.

Peep Update

My peeps are growing like crazy weeds!  They are now4 weeks old and about 5" tall.  They are very skittish now as well.  I have  a few that are pretty inquisitive and like to investigate me, but the rest run and cower at the other end of the brooder screaming 'Monster!!  Run for your life!!!'  Drama queen birds...

It is about time that we open up the rest of the brooder to them.  This will give them the whole 8x8 area to run and scratch through.

They are also getting pretty stinky.  If it ever quits raining here, I need to clean out the brooder and put down fresh pine for them.  However since it has been pouring for days on end I have postponed cleaning the brooder and started drawing up arc plans.

My older hens out in the coop called me up on the cluck line again requesting life vest be issued to everyone.  Poor hens are knee deep in mud in the run.  I try to let them free range as much as possible when the run gets really mucky.   But when it rains, they all hang out in the run and coop anyway so they end up staying in.

The peep are feathering out nicely.  My basement is riddled with fly away tiny downey feathers.  It is always a cleaning chore when we move the little ones outside from the basement.  They dust and feather everything up something terrible.

Four weeks ago it was all they could do to reach the food and water rings.  Now they tower over them and are ready for some low perches to be added to the brooder, and the food and water tanks raised up.  You have to keep the food and water tanks at about shoulder height on the birds to keep them from kicking litter and flooring into the rings.  Its a clean thing.

New Peeps!

My new peeps finally arrived!  We ordered these cuties came from McMurray Hatchery in Iowa, a few months ago.  They were scheduled to be delivered the week of April 4th.  We did not expect them on a Monday!  The post office called my husband at 830 this morning to tell up we have a chirping box waiting for us.  He called me and I wrapped things up at work and scrambled home to get to the post office.  I know that you have to keep the peeps warm, so I had the heat set to inferno in my car.  I was so hot when I pulled into the post office parking lot an hour later!

I opened the box at the post office to make sure they all made it and did a quick head count.  I ordered 25 and they were to send 1 extra exotic rare breed as a bonus.  I counted 26 bobbing little heads and made sure they were all alive.  I thanked the post master and skipped out of the post office totally giddy with these cute little critters chirping loudly in the box in my arms.

At home Hubby was busy mixing up the medicated water that we have to give them as a preventive measure.  We only give it to the peeps for the first week and then they are unmedicated for the rest of their lives.  He also turned on the lights and did the finishing touches on the brooder.  He made sure the basement brooder was nice and warm when I got home with the peeps.

We got home safe and sound and went to the basement.  There I pulled out each peep out and dipped their beak into the water to make them drink.  I was also counting them as I was doing this and ended up with a total of 27 peeps.

We ordered 10 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 5 Black Astralorps, 10 Araucana (Easter Eggers - they lay green/blue eggs), and we ended up with 2 bonus "Rare Exotic Chicks". I don't know what those are yet. All I know is that they are plain white/yellow peeps. Who knows. We will hopefully figure them out when they feather out. We picked these breeds because they are winter hearty and friendly birds.  These cuties will come up to you and investigate your hand and fingers.  They don't run to the other side of the brooder screaming bloody murder that a monster is after them.  

We watched them for a while and we finally pulled ourselves away from them to try to get some work done.  I have been down to visit with them, talk to them and of course take pictures of them.  I will try to take daily pictures to document how fast they feather out.  It is amazing how fast they grow.  

The peeps are very fragile at this stage of their lives.  They are only a few days old and look for everything to be taken care of for them.  When they get exhausted they just kinds fall over asleep where they are.  They drift off to sleep and fall over or collapse and sleep for a few minutes or until another peep runs them over.  They have no regard for each other and will just plow each over over in their activity.

The brooder is 8x8 and we have sectioned it off in half.  They are too small right now to need all that space.  The brooder is made out of OBS board cut in half and held together with zip ties.  We make it so we can tear it down and store it until we need it again.  There is a big tarp on the floor and pine shavings over the tarp.  We have wire lids what will keep them in when they get bigger and try to fly/hop out.  There is 4 lights with 100 watt bulbs and a heat bulb to give them heat.


Here are just some more random pictures of them all:

I hope you enjoyed reading about these cuties!  More to come later!  Stay tuned.