Chicks- Week 2

Everyone has done well throughout the first week!  I seem to have the most problems with the Barred Rocks.  They are the only ones who have been pasting up, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering them.  I have been cleaning them off as much as I can but it is hard to do without stressing them. 

All of the breeds now have their feathers on their wings and most have their tail feathers also.  It seems as though they have found their wings.  I caught two “practicing” in the video below.  I wonder how much longer I’ll be able to keep them in the brooder?  It won’t be a problem if they get out, as long as they realize they have to fly back into it if they get cold!

Barred Rock and Leghorn:

Eyeing ‘em up:

Sleepy Chick:

A chicken conversation:

Week 2 Video:

Chicken Coop

We got our chicks much later than normal in Upstate New York.  We decided in March that we wanted to get some chickens and dip our toes into this whole farming thing.  We had a chicken coop and figured it would be easy enough to get a few chickens and test the waters.  Unfortunately, the week after we decided to get chickens a nasty winter storm came through and we got three feet of snow in a week, and half the roof blew off of our chicken coop.  The irony…

So we decided we would fix the roof, I mean how hard could it be?  But as we uncovered more and more we just discovered more areas that need to be fixed.  Great.

::Note- This chicken coop originally belonged to my grandparents.  My parents raised chickens in it when I was a kid and they refurbished it then.  Then it sat, unused for probably 10 years before we decided to get chickens:: 

Eventually we managed to create a decent structure which we then painted and put a tin roof on.  I think we did pretty good, as neither of us have any carpentry experience.

 The finished product:

 This gives you an idea of where we will put their run which will extend towards the right hand side of the picture…

 They will be able to run in and out of the coop into a fenced in area during the day.  We’ll close it off at night to keep other animals out of the hen-house.  I hope they will be able to roam our yard when we are home also, but time will tell.

 

We will be working on their run soon.  We figure we will have a few weeks before they are feathered out enough to go outside.

We originally planned to order 12 chickens from a local farm store.  Once we realized we wouldn’t have the coop ready though, we decided we would have to order directly from the hatchery or wait until next year.  We ordered our chicks from Welps and the minimum order was 25 (they have to keep each other warm while shipping).  We were able to schedule our delivery date, all our chicks came in alive and have done well and the customer service at the hatchery was excellent.  I highly recommend them!