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.

August Peeps 2020

We have changed to flock over into the large cage now. The box worked well for a few days to get them acclimated to the warmer, food, and water, but now they need the space. See the wing feathers forming, meaning that they are going to want to move and fly. A box just doesn't cut it. 

Piks included of the posterboard experiment.  I chose yellow for "bright-ness" We will see if this works, or if they just shred it.  I do have what I used last time, just in case. But for now, I think this will help to keep them inside the cage better until they are too big to squeeze through. 

Chicken Coop Wind Panels 2020

In our area, we have some strong winds and it can really whip up trouble for our chickens. In the past, we have leaned scrap pieces of plywood against their runs.  Their coops are designed in a way that the wind has no impact, except for occasional rain being blown in through an exposed vent.  In a wind storm, moving these pieces of plywood can be really difficult, especially if they are rain soaked.  I decided to try something different.  I  had some old material left over from a camper trailer cover that had aged out.  But there was still areas that were in good shape.  As you can see, I just  created a long rectangle with light-weight PVC and "corners."  

So far, it was worked well.  The winds will "knock it over" if coming from the opposite side, through the run, but it has not been sent flying into the sky, like plastic does. This one is eight feet by two feet.  I did end up putting a support piece in the center (about four feet into the length) because the heat from the sun was causing the top piece to droop down. 

Wind and Sun Panel for Chicken Runs

Wind Panel in place against the run

Rhode Island Red Chicks - Week One - 2020

So the Cornish Cross (Meaties) are outside enjoying the grass and the sun.  We acclimated them to the coop, while still in the garage, last weekend (March 14) and moved them out while the spring temps were in the mid to high 50s (F). Today is probably the last warm day and most of next week will be rain and probably blustery. 

Cornish Cross in the Hoop Coop Pen (1 month)

The Rhode Island Red (RIR) chicks arrived on March 20.  We had been given a black Cochin by the store that was in critical condtion to see if we could save it.  But, it died on Saturday morning.  It would not eat or drink. The four RIR layers all seem to be quite healthy, eating and drinking well, along with many mini poops. I just switched out the "cloth" that we use under the brooder warmer so it is all super clean at this point. I use this method because helps them to stay cleaner while they are sleeping and snuggling under the warming plate.  

I took a few snaps of the brooder pen layout this morning.  For the meaties, I had used a piece of cardboard to keep them confined in the "front" of the pen for the first week.  I had the heater set up on a block in the corner and prayed that they did not knock the heater over on themselves during the first week.  (It is a safety heater that shuts off if it falls over.) I got to thinking about the small wire panels that I have and so we ziptied them together and clipped them to the opposite edges of the cage to do the exact same thing but, allows the heater to be on the other side, safely away from the chicks for a week or two.  These gals will grow a bit slower than the Cornish Cross.  For the first couple of weeks, as long as we can keep the ambient temp at about 80F, we are good, along with the use of the brooder warmer. 

So this is our new layer flock that will start laying in the fall. 

RIR at 5 days - Hatched 3-17-2020	Rhode Island Reds First Week Wings
Chick Pen with Safety Wall	Brooder Warmer in Chick Pen
(:  Just a little Peep  :)

20 Week Marks Maturity for Rhode Island Reds

While different breeds of chickens mature at different rates, the Rhode Island Reds are showing their maturity with right red combs and broader hips.  I don't have photos today and it is a cloud filled day, so the photos typically don't turn out well on overcast days. I will get some photos soon.  The pullets have been moved into the smaller coop (the one designed for three large hens) and are adapting to the new space.  They had a lot of space while in the hoop coop because, of course, that was originally designed for two turkeys. 

So the Rhodie's space is now about one-third of what they originally were maturing in. I will also take photos of the new feeder that D purchased that is designed to keep mice and rats out of the feed. His intent is to pick up another one if this one works.  The rats and mice are thick in our fields, so it is always a battle to not feed them. The feeder is designed to close down when ever a mouse/rat pulls on the lever to get into the feed. I have a mini-cam that I will also be putting out into the run to see if this thing is actually working. 

He purchased it last winter, but the Welsummers were not smart enough to figure out how to get their food out. He decided to wait for the Rhodie's to mature to the right height to see if they would figure it out.  And they did, within minutes of it being set up.  Go figure? 

This was the coop that we discovered had been leaking last winter.  We got the leak handled, but it did in the flooring. That has been replaced with painted particle board. We bleached down the walls, installed the floor and aired it all out for the new flock. We will paint the outsides of it soon, in preparation for winter.  We have new shade screens for both runs since the weather has been harsh on the one we picked up several years ago. We also need to create some new wind screen boards this summer before the fall east winds kick in. With all the rain that we get, the wood rots and gives out after a couple of years, even when it is painted/stained. 

We had a bit of a scare.  When I was carrying one of the pullets to their new digs, I stepped in a hole and my legs went out from under me. I fell forward, almost crushing the poor chicken. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have time to react to let her go and we both went down together. She is fine and I'm healing.  

Since the RIRs have hit "maturity" time, I have hay and a fake egg in the nesting box to help spur them into laying now. 

Garden is better than last year.  We have several bell peppers already, about four tomatoes on one early plant, the potatoes are ready for the dig out, the corn is about knee high, the onions are starting to grow, the first of the three bean plants is flowering, oregano, basil and dill, plus the carrots and radishes are growing quickly.  The garlic is basically ready for the dig up, although they are smaller than I had hoped, but, they survived the winter, so that's a plus.  I did notice some aphids on one plant, so that's likely to be the next battle. If we can have a relatively unhumid summer, we should have a pretty good crop of the plants in the ground. I am hesitant to mention it, for fear of jinxing anything, but I have not seen any slugs!  Usually, by this time of year, we have massive slugs moving around. On the other hand, we have tons of snakes this year, and it may be that they are eating those slugs for lunch. Hope so.  I would much rather have snakes than slugs in my garden, any day of the week. 

Brooder Change after Two Weeks

With nine rapidly growing chicks that have already bonded as a flock, we decided to move them all together into the larger pen. We knew that we needed at least 1 square foot per bird within the next two weeks.  We have a "half" cage assembled that provides a little over 13 square feet, so that's the simple solution.  We have it covered with old bed sheets to minimize drafts in our garage.  We should not need to use a heater any more, but if it does start freezing we have it set up in a way that will allow for us to set that back up. We put both brooder warmers into the cage at different heights. A sheet for the floor to hold in the wood shavings and we have the food/water elevated to minimize shavings in those containers. So, yep, the next stage.  

Since the wings are now feathers, they try to fly around from time to time. And there is enough space to allow them to practice without getting hurt. The beefyest of the Cornish Cross is quite the chunk already.  I took a shot of him, next to one of the Rhode Island Reds, and well, yah.... look at the girth of his legs compared to the other. HA! I assume he is going to be a big boy. 

We will try to keep them in this cage for about four weeks before putting them out in the coop.  I can see no reason to separate the Reds from the Crosses, given that they seem comfortable and content to be together now. When we added the Crosses to the little Red flock, it immediately calmed the Reds down and they are less stressed with the added numbers. So it seems most logical to just keep them together, for now, until we need to take the Crosses for slaughter in a couple months. 

One of the rodents out in the outdoor chicken pens got killed when it ran under the tractor tire.  Talk about large.  The tail was eight inches long and it weighed a little over five pounds. That's almost as much as our chickens weigh. It is twice the size as most of the little wild rabbits in our field. No wonder the poor chickens have been stressed out by these rodents! It's definitely time for outdoor pest control!  We have tackled the rodents in the garage/porch areas, and now to get out the big traps. I might need to watch a few episodes of Mountain Men to figure out how to trap the big game!

For those that are wondering, the brooder pen is 3.5' by 3.75' by 4'h. We have two small brooder warmers in the pen set for two different heights, a long 18-inch feeder for up to 12 chicks, a half-gallon waterer, a light on a timer for 12 hours of light, plenty of wood shavings and DE sprinkled in to help minimize feather mites. We are on to the next stage of chick development. We use non-medicated Chick Start feed.  The first two weeks, we grind up the chick feed into a fine mill so that they are able to get plenty without struggling to swallow the larger pieces.  As their beaks get stronger, they can break it up, as needed. They should be strong enough now to handle the small crumbles.   

New Brooder Cage	Chicks are about the same size now
The Reds are working on feathers	Buddies
Size Comparison

The Latest Chick Flix

I don't normally record my little peeps.  I don't have the best luck with it and it takes up so much space.  Today, I attempted, it worked, and here are the shorts of it.

Watch as a fight is about to erupt. 

After the fracas - a little poop happens. 

Now is it time to eat!

Late February Chicken Update

With the really cold weather temps in December that continued into early January, the older Welsummers stopped laying again.  In February, I decided to give them one more month to get back on track.  After the Christmas temps/storm, we begin to notice more and more pest issues. Then we started noticing that we were going through more feed. Soon, we noticed that their water was getting fouled quickly because the varmints eating the chicken feed were climbing the waterer to get into the feeder.  

I wondered if the pests were contributing to the older hens' laying issues.  Two of the new hens were also not laying well.  So, we now take the feed out of the pens each night when the hens roost, and bring it out early in the morning when the hens are up (about 6 am). We do know that the hens will chase any small mice that get into their pens, when they are awake. Took almost a month, but the older Welsummers are back to laying eggs. We are getting about 1 per day from the three of them. So that's better. They were almost stew pot poultry, because I had decided I would only wait until the first weekend of March for them to start laying again.  Another upside to the removing food at night is that we are not going through as much feed now. "Imagine that?" LOL 

Older hens will be either sold, or slaughtered in about three to four months, anyway. We need to make room for the new chicks.  We got three Rhode Island Red pullet chicks last weekend. We also picked up six Cornish Cross this weekend. 

Weather-wise, it is super cold again after starting February with some spectacular warm temps. It was in the 60s F the first weekend of Feb. What a cre-azy weather month. Last week the temps started dropping in to 30s during the day and 20s at nights. Then we received, all told, about a foot of snow this past week. However, the most snow on the ground on any given day was about 6 inches.  Finally melting and almost all gone. I didn't have any batteries for my camera and didn't get any pix of the snow when it was happening. This is all that is left now. But we may get more this weekend. 

That was a lot of Snow for February!

New chicks are all snuggled together in a small pen to keep them safe and warm until the temps in the garage are warmer. The Rhode Island Reds are about 10 days while the Cornish Cross are about four days. We will put them into a larger pen when we no longer need to control the pen (brooder) temps. 

First Photo of the Day

New brooder warmer; long story. Short version is that we could not find the power connector for the brooder warming plate and to order one takes more than a week to receive. But, I could get a new warmer shipped overnight delivery. So, yah, different warmer and it is keeping the babies nice and warm. Still waiting for the power cord. [Ugh] For now, it is the one warmer to be shared by all. Thankfully, the Cornish X are about the same size as the 10-day-old Rhode Island Reds. 

Snuggled under the Warming Plate

The rest of the photos from last night. 

Cornish Cross meet Rhode Island Red

Peeking out from the Warmth

Poop is Always Happening

Feeling the Sweet Soft Sunshine!

Such a cold and wet winter that slowly slid into spring. Cooler temps are slowing the crops.  Record breaking rain fall, in for the Pac NW! The sun brought a much needed day of Vitamin D.  

The Orloff flock will be sold to make way for the new Welsummers. They are ready to move outside.  I'll post photos when they move. 

In the mean time, it was nice to walk around to check my little crops, and pet the gals as they sun bathed for the first time in quite some time. 

The crops above are 3 different types of potatoes in barrels, spinach around red onions, and walla walla sweet onions.

These Orloffs are ready for sale.

The Clucky Flock	There's Sun!
Any Treats for us?

The Welsummers will stay for one more year.

Looky, we have sunshine :)	Buggs! Yeeha!
The Flock of Four

Orloffs are Molting Again, Right on Time

This is the second annual molting season (or is that moulting) for our four remaining Orloffs.  D felt this would be a good time to take the lead Orloff from the Welsummer's pen and add her to the Orloff pen.  Um, I'm not so sure this is a good idea. But, since they are already stressed, who knows? It might be the perfect time. She is definitely is fiesty and may be able to dominate in the end. Yet, she is also a very friendly hen, so, she may not be able to win out with the transition.  We are adding probiotics to their water to help their immune system and we will watch to see how they fare.  

The hen keeps calling to the Welsummers and they to her. It's quite interesting. After a few attacks between her and the other Orloffs, she seems to be ruling the pen dominance, but that may not last as they wear her down. It would be one thing if we had pulled the others into her territory where she feels the dominance, and moved the Welsummers to the other pen/coop.  But that would have been considerably more work and efforts. This will be an interesting experiment.

The Welsummers are not yet molting, and producing plenty of nice eggs. So this should reduce the burden of the eggless time period.

Bigger Turkeys Need more Space

The turkeys are about 15 weeks old now. They sure do grow quickly! 

This week, we worked on setting up an electric netting area for the turkeys.  They are leery of it, and, they can fly over if they choose, but have not in the past few days. There's plenty of grass, seeds and weeds for them to forage at this point. We need to get some better mid supports for the fencing. The stretches are about 13' so the sections can get pretty saggy without mid supports. Right now, we are using fiberglass supports to hold up the fencing. So, for now, the two turkeys have approximately 40'x40' protected grazing area to keep dogs, cats and coyotes out.