More Babies!

The pending arrival of my baby chicks has been a great topic of conversation at my workplace and has inspired several of my co-workers to go on-line and Google search pictures of chickens in order to give me “sound advice” about what sort of chickens I should be getting.  Unfortunately, somebody found pictures of Silkies.

Silkies are an ancient Chinese breed of chicken.  The first European account of Silkies was Marco Polo’s account of “furry chickens” during his 13^th century travels to Asia.  Silkies do, in fact, look very furry.  Imagine the “French poodle” version of poultry. This furriness is because their feathers lack barbicels, the tiny hooklets that keep the strands of a feather aligned.  Other bizarre characteristics include back skin, meat, and bones, and blue earlobes.  Oh, and they have extra toes.  Silkies are not necessarily great egg layers, but they have a calm demeanor and a friendly disposition.  From my perspective, people get Silkies for pets, not to be production birds.  There are pictures on the net of Silkies dressed up in top hats or tutus.  So there you go.

Several of my co-workers have now convinced me that it is absolutely incumbent upon me as a keeper of chickens to have a few Silkies.  When I finally caved to their pressure I told them I would get some Silkie chickens, but to make it clear to the world who was responsible for these fluffy little birds becoming members of my flock, I would name the Silkies after those very co-workers. 

I’ve been a little hard pressed to find anybody in the area who can provide me with Silkies at this short notice, but have finally gotten on the list at Houle’s Farm Garden and Pet in Forest Lake for three Silkie babies.  The bad news is that these three babies will be part of a batch of straight-line chicks they are getting in.  In other words they will not be sexed.  Chances are that at least one of these babies will turn out to be a rooster.  The word is that Silkies are nearly impossible to sex anyway, so getting straight-line Silkie babies sounds like par for the course.  Anyway, I’m glad I’ve managed to find some Silkies to add a little variety to my pending flock, and we’ll cross the rooster bridge if and when we come to it!

More Coop Progress

I revved up the old sawzall and cut a large gaping hole in the back wall of the pole barn just as though I knew what I was doing. This will be the people door to get from the chicken coop into the outdoor run. (Note chicken-sized pop door to the right.)

Also, I’m making progress on getting the coop walls up.  I still need to do the floor, nest boxes, roost, wet bar, large screen TV, la-z-boy recliners, etc. Since my chickens will be showing up in less than 2 weeks, I’m glad I’ve got the wood shed for them to hang out in until I get this all finished.

Building a Chick Nursery

Well, I'm making progress on building the chicken coop in the pole barn but it is rapidly becoming obvious that it won't be done by the time the babies show up in June.  On to plan B:  I'm converting my wood shed to a brooder house for the babies and they can actually live there for most of the summer which will take the pressure off for getting the coop finished.

Easy steps for turning the woodshed into a brooder house (1)  Remove firewood left over from the winter. (2)  Sweep out dirt and sawdust.  (3)  Hang a couple of heat lamps.  (4)  Add kiddie pool (Now I know why I saved the old kiddie pool all these years!) (5) Cover bottom of kiddie pool with paper towels (The experts recommend paper towels for bedding rather than pine shavings or straw for tiny babies.  As the paper towels become soiled you can continue to put down more layers and when they've outgrown the towels, you can just roll them all up and throw them away in one fell swoop!) (6) Chick water fonts and feeders.

The heat lamps are on adjustable chains and can be moved up and down depending on the ambient temperature and the age of the chicks.  As the chicks get older I can get rid of the kiddie pool, put pine shavings on the floor and they can have complete run of the 10 x 10 building.

 I built these sliding screen doors out of hardware cloth and 1 x 4's so I can have the doors open for ventilation once the weather warms up.

I built a rather haphazard chicken run out of some leftover fencing for the chicks to go outside when they're old enough.  They will outgrow this enclosure, but hopefully by that time I'll have the real coop and chicken run ready to go!

Pole Barn Progress

Here's a few pictures showing my progress towards getting a coop built in the pole barn:

Here's the pile of scrap lumber I posted on March 10. Used some of it to make the lumber racks. The rest of it is actually on the racks. I cut up the smaller pieces & they are now in the fireplace heating my house. So satisfying getting this stuff organized!

Another pole barn phenomenon: This bike hung upside down long so long that phoebes built a nest on the seat. I have a neighbor who is an artist & is way into bird nests. When I told her about this, she was so excited that I promised I would give her the bike with the nest intact so she could paint it.

I built these hardware cloth doors that swing into place when the sliding pole barn door is partially open - it allows the door to be open in the summer for ventilation but will hopefully keep predators and other nasty critters out.

Here's the pop door.  A pop door is a chicken-sized door that allows the chicken to go from the chicken coop into the outdoor chicken run.  The small pop door allows the chicken to go in and out but provides a smaller opening for heat loss in cool weather than a people-sized door would.

Of course, when I told Bailey I was building a pop door, she thought I said "pup door."

Chicks Thru the Mail

I am happy to announce that I have just put in my order for baby chicks! I am expecting delivery on June 3.  Ha!  "Delivery" sounds like I'm expecting a baby.  Well, I guess I am!  Sixteen of them!  NOW the pressure is on for me to get the coop & run built. 

People have been asking me how I know if I'm getting girls or boys.  You can buy "straight run" chicks, which mean they could be either hens or roosters, or you can spend more and makes sure that they've been "sexed."  A sexed chick has been examined by experts using a process called "vent sexing" and the sex has been determined.  You are probably wondering how they do that.  In fact it is a very arcane and esoteric scientific procedure that is performed by the few individuals who are experts in that field.  Basically, they pick them up and look at their butts.  Yeah, I know.  Tiny and fluffy.  How do you tell the difference?  These guys are just really, really good.  They guarantee an accuracy rate of 90%.  

I am getting my chicks from a company called My Pet Chicken, who has more breeds of chickens than you can even imagine exist.  They cater to small flock owners, and they ship through the mail. Shipping baby chicks through the mail works because they are baby chicks.  When baby mammals are born they immediately need their mother's milk for nutrition.  That is not an option for baby birds, nor is it necessary.  While a baby bird is developing in an egg, the egg yolk provides nutrition.  The baby bird absorbs the last bit of yolk just before it hatches, and that yolk can sustain the baby for several days without any additional nutrition.  That is important in wild birds since the babies can hatch out over a period of days.  The mother bird can't leave the nest and find food for her babies until the last bird hatches, so in the mean time the first birds to hatch are sustained by the nutrition provided by the yolk. So baby chicks can survive on residual yolk nutrients for several days while going through the mail.  This is a very cool trick Mother Nature has developed, and very fortunate for those of us who would like to have somewhat unusual breeds of chickens that may not be available locally.

Speaking of breeds, I am getting a mixture of:

Barred Plymouth Rocks
Campines
Rhode Island Reds
Austrolorps
Easter Eggers (not a true breed, but a crossbreed that includes Americauna's - a breed that produces blue eggs!)

Assuming they all make it to hen-hood & they average 4-5 eggs a week, doing the math that would be...carry the one....one heck of a lot of eggs!  At the very least I can be assured a very hefty omelet every day!

Future Coop Here!

Home of Future Chicken Coop!

Project Chicken is underway!  I was just in my pole barn mulling over the mess. When I built my garage over 10 years ago, all the good stuff got moved into the garage from the pole barn and all the junk got left behind. Now I need to get a chicken coop built in the pole barn before June when my baby chickens show up and am suddenly realizing how much junk there really is.  I'm gonna have to move the junk out before the chickens move in. The coop is going in this corner where this pile of scrap lumber is now residing.