Four Weeks and Counting Until Ready to Go Outside 2023

This is the MOST chicks we have ever attempted brooding at once. We planned on 50, and ended up with 59! All survived which is really quite extraordinary. 

We really needed another brooder for all these chicks, but we worked our way through.  We started brooding in the house the first two weeks in large boxes.  Started with two large boxes, and within a week, we needed to add another large box to handle their growth.  We had the freezing temps with much cooler than typical end of February weather. We moved the chicks into the larger, four-foot square brooders during the first week of March. We had 29 chicks in one brooder and 30 chicks in the other brooder.  This was fine at the start of the month, but now, two weeks in to March, it is no longer feasible.  Typically, we can keep about 20 chicks in our brooders from week one to week six. Um.... yah, we really needed one more large brooder. 

We decided, since 26 of the chicks will be leaving for their new homes in a couple of weeks, that we would divide them in half (based on their respective mini-flocks) to give them the added space for the next two weeks.  This helps with their flock bonding experience by reducing the stress because they won't be crowded at all for the next two weeks. We placed the other 33 chicks into our larger six-foot square pull pen.  Typically, we use this pen while pasturing and growing out our meat chickens. The chicks are small enough (at the moment) to have plenty of running, chasing around, and flying space in this larger pen for at least the next four to six weeks. We will be selling most of the rest of our chicks by that time as "left overs."  We bought extra of all breeds to ensure that if any died or any were roosters, we would still have some of each breed available for the people we presold for this winter/spring. 

We already have people interested in our 10+ week leftover pullets.  So I'm fairly certain that we will be able to sell all those extras before spring is done.

The New Chicks Are Coming, The New Chicks Are Coming!

Just now starting the new chicks for spring, 2023. I did some special order chicks in addition to the ones that I ordered from the hatchery a couple of months ago.  I picked up a couple Olive Eggers, Cream Legbars, and four Lavender Orpingtons. With the temps still fluctuating in the garage, we decided to start the chicks in a large box in the house. We have two more large boxes ready to be used when the other chicks arrive next week. Normally, I use a smaller red water base (non-drowning) base, but I didn't have ready access to them and needed to get water going.  These little girls have done just fine with this base. 

The chicks are now three days into being at the house, and seem to be doing well.  They will be a week older than the rest of the chicks that arrive next week.  We will merge them based on the situation and health of the newer chicks.  If the newer chicks bounce back quickly after they arrive, we will quickly merge this little group with the larger group.  On the other hand, if the new chicks don't bounce back quickly, we will assess the strongest chicks that we can merge with the first batch and work to nurse the weakest back to health as quickly as possible. 

Am very excited to learn more about the new breeds that I requested.  The chicks that I listed for pre-sale were reserved very quickly this year. Now to just wait and see what arrives. 

The meat (Cornish Cross) chicks won't be arriving until April 12th. I was much more careful about timing this year so that we have plenty of time to ensure that all the layer chicks can go outside before we start our batch of meat chickens. The only bad factor here is that these chicks will need to go outside while there is still the chance of freezing temps near the end of March. I try to ensure that the temp in the garage is kept a bit cooler so that they will feather more quickly this year. 

Almost 3 week old Chicks - August 2020

We have had the chicks two weeks now, although they will be three weeks on Sunday, August 16 and Monday, August 17.  The Cornish Cross are almost ready to go outside, but we are going to have a heat wave this weekend and into next week, so we have to wait until that passes before they go outside.  They have no true way to regulate their body temps and they are prone to heat stroke on those hot days. By next Friday, they will be outside until they are old enough to process. 

The other chicks look so tiny in comparison. But they are only a day or two younger. We lost one of the Blue Plymouth.  She didn't eat or drink very well.  It happens. We have had more problems with that this year I think due to the overload on the hatcheries trying to ensure that they are getting enough chicks out.  It is not uncommon for them to sell those chicks that are not as healthy as they could/should be. Unfortunately, that's what happens when people start panic purchasing livestock. The remaining 14 seem to be doing okay.  

We did do a bit of nursing on one of the Blue Plymouth yesterday after it got tangled in one of the threads on the flooring.  We attempt to keep a close watch on them, but things happen from time to time. Thankfully, we seem to have caught it soon enough and after some extra attention, it perked back up and appears to be eating and doing fine now. I put an ankle bracelet on it so that I can keep an extra eye on how it is doing. I'll cut off the band in a day or two to let it blend back into the group.  She is the gray chick in the first column, third down and bottom, of photos below 

Two weeks in, and today was transition into shavings day. New process is always a big transition for little chicks, but they have all settled into the new environment after a few moments of distress, back to EPS (eating, pooping and sleeping). 

August 2020 - Garden and Chick Updates

July weather definitely helped with our garden, although the last week of July was sweltering. I had to start protecting the tomatoes to keep them from getting sun scald. Aside from that, the tomato wind guard area seems to be working out fine.  While I had originally planned on setting the bell pepper plants in that area, it's just not wide enough.  I will need to rethink it if I do this next year. 

The cucumbers are FINALLY doing their thing.  The first planting didn't survive.  The 2nd planting barely survived, but I didn't think they would, so I did a third planting... they also survived, but we will see it it was too late to get any cucumbers from them. At least we are getting some cucumbers at this point. 

Acorn squash. First try. Finally starting to get female buds.  For about three weeks, there were only male.  I just read that as soon as the male flowers start showing up, to put a dose of fertilizer on the plant to encourage the females to form. Then watch closely, the color of the leaves.  Keep them from turning yellow by regularly feeding the plants. We will see how this turns out. 

Corn survived!  The last time we had a summer like we had in June, my corn did not survive the month.  This year, instead of trying to start them outside, I kept them in the greenhouse under a light and that seemed to do the trick. I pulled all the tillers off this year and this past week, have added a dose of bone meal to help with corn development.  We should have some corn in another couple of weeks!

 

All onion are pulled and most have been cut up and dried. Pulled enough bush string beans to freeze for three meals. Plan to do that with the corn this year, too.  

Have pulled most of the broccoli florets off to keep them from bolting. Cauliflower heads are finally starting to form.  I have not grown cauliflower since the 1980s. I can't remember how long it takes.  This has been a very LONG time, it seems. 

Bell peppers have been attacked by bugs this year.  They are doing better, but not as well as I would like.  I think it is also a weather situation. This photo is a Sandpiper pepper.  Curious to see what it tastes like. 

Basil replant took hold.  I normally can't get basil to come up in July because it is usually too hot by that time. But the June weather really took a toll on a lot of my starts. It will probably be a late August before I can start harvesting dill and basil.  I'll take what I can get. 

The Cornish Cross Chicks came in on Wednesday this past week (July 29).  The last batch of Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rock and the Blue Plymouth showed up on Friday (July 31).  Lots of new chicks and their cute little peeps are in the garage. 

Garden & Chicks - Early May Update 2020

Yes, still have a lot of chicks.

Lost a few small ones and nursed a couple more that seem to be doing better.  Yesterday, one of the little Rhode Island Reds cut her head, right behind her ear and others were picking on her.  They were chasing her away from food and I thought we were going to lose her. Washed her little face off and isolated her in a separate cage inside the pen, to ensure that she was able to eat, drink, and sleep.  Within a few hours, she was alert and ready to go back. The others didn't pick on her anymore and all seemed better.  Then, today, I noticed one of the Barred Rock chicks had pasty butt.  It still had food in it's crop, and was still eating, so I think I caught it early. I had to soak the chick in a pan of warm water to  get the poop off.  Holding it on a warm washcloth just wasn't doing a thing and the cloth just kept getting cold. Within a minute of putting the chick's butt into the water, the pooh released and fell off into the water. I wrapped her up into a little wash cloth and held her on my chest to keep her warm until I found the hair dryer.  Set that up about eight inches away and let it blow on her until she was all dry. Wasn't even ten minutes because she's so small. Put her back with the others, and she went right to the food and started eating. Fingers crossed on both of them.

We decided to add an extra feeder into the pen and put the other warmer into the pen.  That's been a big hit. Plus, every day is Sheet Cleaning Day with this many chicks.  I try to change the sheets every day simply because, well, there are a lot of little poopers in there all at the same time. Normally, I can wait about three days between changes. But not now!

24 hours of pooh from 16 chicks

The baby RIRs are starting to fly and jump over things. That's a good sign that we are about ready for shavings.  BUT, the baby BRs are not quite there yet.  They seem to be about three or four days behind the RIRs at this point.  When we got them, the RIRs were much smaller than the BRs.  Now the BRs are much smaller and somewhat delayed in abilities.  It's all good, but I would like to have them all in shavings at this point so I won't need to keep washing sheets.

The other BRs finally figured out their dust bath!  It was almost full and now it is almost empty.  They are mite and lice free at this point with just a few nits left. I am still keeping the heater going as that will help those nits hatch and fall into the DE.  One more week and I will clean out the entire cage to ensure we have all mites and lice out of there, and put all fresh stuff in there and we should be back on track, pest free. These BRs have gained weight and have more feathers, so they look much better.

4 or 5 wk Barred Rock Pullets

Dust Bath Emptied

In the greenhouse, we have tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro and lettuce.  I had transplanted the plants from the nursery into gallon milk jugs because they were getting root bound in the containers. They were doing really well outside until the storms came in and started pelting them.  One of the bell peppers got the most damage, so they are back in the greenhouse for now.

Cherokee Purple Tomato Clones

Sweet Bell Pepper Clones

My starts, from seed in March, are finally looking good.  The lettuce also is doing very well.  I have three types of leaf lettuce.  The cilantro just sprouted this week. I will need to thin that out.

My Itty Bitty Starts are Growing

Potatoes are finally looking good. Strawberries are still blooming. Peas  (planted on two weeks apart three times) are all doing very well. The marjoram that I started last fall in the green house, then struggled to keep the bugs from killing it, is actually thriving. Last winter, I just took the pot outside and figured I would just start over in the spring. But it just came back on its own. Go Figure?

Cilantro Sprouts	Leaf Lettuce - unknown type
Leaf Lettuce - Red Sails	Topped Off Potatoes with Soil
Strawberries still blooming	Marjoram Revived itself
Peas Planted 2wks apart

And lastly, the clover seed that we sprinkled out last week has already sprouted. We tried to dig out all the thistles that had taken over some areas of the back yard and it looks like the clover is going to fill it all in.  So today, we scrapped out some areas that were filled with moss in the shade to see how long that will take.  Little by little.  I purchased 10 pounds of seed, so we have lots of areas to experiment and see how it does.

Crimson Clover Sprouts

Major Chick Update April 2020

We have more chicks now, than ever.  We had the original four Rhode Island Reds that are six weeks old, outside, really, outside, in the sun, in their run and making the adjustment from coop to being in the grass. 

Plus, a bit of a tragedy yesterday.  One of the 1-week old Rhode Island Red chicks died.  Actually, two of them seemed sickly when we picked them up.  My bad.  I received a call on Wednesday night that the RIRs had arrived at the store.  I didn't realize that the store had called, and so the little RIRs sat there until Friday morning.  The Barred Rock did arrive Friday morning.  I know better than to let chicks stay at the store in shavings and under a heat lamp for any length of time.  They will eat the small shavings and will also get too hot and get dehydrated.  A lot these "store chicks" will get pasty butt too, meaning that they are dehydrated/too hot. Although none of the chicks that I picked up had pasty butt, several of the RIR were lethargic, were not eating or drinking well, and they were stretching out their little necks while opening up their mouths really wide as though there was something stuck in their crops. So my bad for not checking my phone for calls from the store this past week. 

Sensing that we were going to lose at least two of the six new RIR chicks, we kinda went into panic mode trying to figure out what we were going to do.  Called the store only to be told that all chicks were sold from that batch they received in. That come Monday morning they MIGHT have a few left that people might not pick up.  Rather than risk it, I put in an order for three more chicks to arrive in early May.  Then we found a farm on the other side of town that had some three week old chicks, both RIR and Barred Rock. As we were arranging to drive across town to pick up some, the store called me back to say that they had three of the RIR's from the batch this past week.  Did I want them.  Yes, thank you!  I picked them up and they seem fine. Then, headed over to pick up a couple of the 3-week old Barred Rocks from across town. 

When they first arrived, I thought, no way that these are three weeks old.  Perhaps two weeks.  But, now that they are out and moving around in the quarantine pen, they do appear to be about three or four weeks old. In a few weeks, we can either put them out into the coop with the older RIRs. or mix them into the large flock in the brooder pen. 

So, yep. We have a LOT of chicklets right now! Oh, and by the way, the other RIR that seemed sick and we thought might die, is doing much better today.  Eating, drinking, pooping and running around with the larger flock. That means we now have eight 1-week old Rhode Island Reds, four 6-week old Rhode Island Reds, two 3-week old Barred Rocks and six 1-week old Barred Rocks.  This should be interesting for the next few weeks into June! 

2 6wk Rhode Island Reds Outside	2 other 6wk RIRs Outside
The 2 3wk Barred Rocks	2 3wk Barred "Plymouth" Rocks
The 1wk Mix of RIR and BR	Peeps digging in the corner
1wk Peeps	More of the 1wk peeps
And Peeps Just Hanging Out