Here’s a few things I have learned about the chicks in the 20 days we have had them:

• In all the reading I have done there are tons of chicken pictures. How do you get the chicken to first get picked up and second to stand still!?!?! Our chickens are fast, and do not like to be held.
• I originally thought 8 weeks in the brooder, yeah right! There is no way our basement box set up will stay together for 8 weeks. We’ve already had to duct tape more cardboard to add height, and fill in the holes they have pecked into it. At 3 plus weeks they seem to be scratching more so they pull up the paper towels under the pine shavings and make a mess of the broader quicker.
• They are busy busy busy, and there’s no way I am going to just go “hold” one as a pet!
• Diseases are super hard to diagnose when you are not a vet. But to take a $2.50 chick to the vet is a little ridiculous so we will continue to research and learn the best we can!

We worked a little bit on the coop tonight. We separated it with some boards so they are still in a tight area. Hopefully we will take them out for a few hours in the coop a couple times this week before we keep them out there full time. First, I need to figure out how I am going to get them out there for their little field trips!

The smaller coop area for now.

Joey checking it all out!

Last night the Barred Rock hen who was placed in our chick hospital was not doing well. Since Wednesday she has been getting worse and worse. We contemplated culling her each night but for some reason she would do something that would give us a little hope. She received .5 cc’s of Tylan 50 for 2 days and VetRx as well. If she made it through 5 days of the antibiotics, we knew she was a keeper. Well this morning I went to check on her and she had passed away in the night. I was quite sad but relieved. Again like we are doing with this whole adventure, we continue to research everything. We do not believe it was Merrick’s disease or coccidiosis. Our best guess is just failure to thrive. I think her blindness made it more challenging to get around, she was not gaining any weight and nothing was going to make it any better.

The other 14 are growing as fast as ever. Their little feathers are getting bigger and bigger. Granny taught me an easy way to make a chicken go to sleep. Place the head right under your arm. Tonight Brock grabbed one and it was squawking and flipping around. He put it right under his arm and she instantly stopped making a sound and went calm. We both just looked at each other and laughed! Sometimes all you need is some older, wiser advice!

Granny’s chicken calming method

Buff Orpingtons side view

Orpingtons are getting tall.

This one has lots of white spots coming in.

Finally caught a Red!

Red side view.

Red head

Look at those tiny feathers coming in.

We’re a little more than two weeks into this adventure and the chicks are getting big fast. They’re at least twice their original size and look even bigger when they spread their wings or stand up tall. We added some height to the broader to prevent escapes as they like to stand on their new/bigger feeder and waterer. There’s lot of flitting about and sudo-flying across the broader. They confront each other and I suspect that is them literally figuring out the pecking order. It doesn’t appear that the rooster is aware of his role just yet as he acts much like the hens for now. Feathers are becoming more apparent on their bellies and tails.

Rooster comb

Rooster

The Leghorn and Buff Orpingtons, who looked very similar early on being as they were all yellow, are now starting to show their differences in color. The Leghorns are now mostly white with a little yellow and the Buffs are mostly still yellow.

Leghorn comb

Leghorn tail feathers

Barred Rock comb

Barred Rock toes and belly down/feather transition

We do have one Barred Rock that has had some sort of an issue that became apparent in week 2. We first noticed the other birds pecking her more than usual and it appeared that she was blind in her left eye. She’s always been a little smaller than the others. This past Sunday it was more apparent that she was struggling so we separated her and have watched her more closely. She appears to now be blind in both eyes and has a reddish patch on the left of her head around her ear/eye. She was walking in a circular path in only one direction yesterday but isn’t doing that today. We’ve done a lot of reading on this and are thinking about some things to try. The best guess we have is that its some kind of an ear infection. For now we dip her beak in her electrolyte/vitamin water. She doesn’t appear to eat when we’re around but she’s pooping so she’s eating something. Hopefully she ate a bit of the scrambled egg we gave her as its reported to be an excellent source of important vitamins for chicks.

Chick Hospital

They’re getting big

Never a dull moment

We decided to add a couple extra inches of cardboard on top. The chicks were starting to fly and get some air. We replaced all the pine shavings and made 2 roosting bars out of twigs from the yard. I feel like they grew from this morning to the evening.

Here are a few pictures of their growth. When you pick them up, you can feel their feathers starting to come in.

Red’s comb

Reds wingspan

My tail feathers are filling in.

My comb is growing.

My hidden feathers

I want to nip at the chickens.

The chickens were very flighty tonight. I was trying to reach for one and it flew as high at the feeder. Looks like I need to make the brooder a little taller! I was only able to capture 3 to inspect them. The Reds are really getting their feathers. The Rocks legs are starting to show off some darker colors. All in all they are just growing and getting off the ground a little bit.

Legs are getting longer.

Reds wings are filling out with feathers.

Rocks legs are changing colors.

Too fast for a good picture!

The chicks are 6 days old. They have started to get taller and some feathers on their behinds are starting to sprout. When we try to pick them up or set them down, they are starting to flap their wings and get off the ground a little bit. The boys came to visit and they were able to reach right in and pick them up.

There is one Barred Rock that seems a little slow. We are wondering if the pecking order is starting or if she just is the runt of the group? We are going to keep an eye on her for a few days and see what happens.

This week we will introduce a small amount of grit and place the pine shavings down for bedding.

Ethan had quick hands to catch a chick.

Lucas was able to catch the quick chick.

The rooster is getting very big.

The boys had a fun visit.

Hungry chicks

We had a fun night with our visitors!

Ryker meeting the chickens.

Anderson meeting the chickens.

Kensington loves the chickens.

Kisses!

Bedtime

We keep the heat lamp on all day long, but we shut the over head light off every night. The minute I turn the light on in the morning they jump right up. A few stand up and fall asleep in some awkward positions. Tonight after coming home from work around 6:30, I went to check on them and everyone was asleep. I guess this is good since they will go inside the coop when the sun goes down. I can tell they are getting bigger, they have gone through almost 2 quarts of feed.

Poor little guy is trying to sleep.

Sleeping while standing up

Morning clean up routine.

This morning I got up and had not heard a peep. I went downstairs to check out the situation and they were all sleeping. Some were standing up sleeping, and others were all laid out fast asleep. I turned on the basement light and instantly they woke up and were chirping. I decided to put down fresh paper towels and add fresh water. I came back down a few hours later and as you can tell from the picture below, they really make a mess. Food spread all out, and poop everywhere!

We’re still trying to figure out who is who. The chicks came with a few marks on their heads. We are assuming the Buff Orpington, with the blue and orange stripes, is the only rooster we bought. The other ones we think are Orpingtons have a single orange mark on their head. If this is the rooster, he does sit a little taller than all the others. He also has done the most “pecking” and keeping others in line.

Rooster?

Another look at the top of the possible rooster

We also purchased

-4 Barred Rocks.

Barred Rock

-4 Rhode Island Reds

Closer look at the Rhode Island Red.

RI Reds feathers

and 2 White Leghorns and 5 Buff Orpingtons. It is so hard to tell the Buff Orpingtons and Leghorns apart.

White leghorn or Buff Orpington

White leghorn or Buff Orpingtons

As the days go by we’ll find out who the rooster is, that is unless another one sneaked in.