Well Well, the chicks are now almost 13 days old and in chicken lifetime, that means that their starting their teen years or as some call it their ugly time.  The yellow puff balls that we used to have are now losing most of their puff and just starting to get their feathers, so like our teenage years their in-between and don't look so great.  Check out the picks and let me know what you think.

 

As noted in my last post, the chickens are testing out their new wings and let's just say that the old brooder house wasn't going to make it much longer, at least not with the chickens inside of it.

So with that being said, my sons and I decided to build a Binford 2000 model brooder house.  As you can see from the photos and video below, it's quite the condominium.   The new sprawling digs measure in at 4' x 8' x 4.25'  (W x L x H) and include a stick-down vinyl floor (for easy clean-up) and two roosts (area where the chicken hop up to and sleep at night).

This was a great test for the new coop which I need to build in the next few weeks, as it's going to be 4 times the size at 8' x 16' x 8' (W x L x H)

As you can see, the chicks, although they didn't like the idea of us catching them in order to move them into the new brooder, really enjoy their new hang-out.

Until Next Time... Enjoy the Pictures and Video!

 

Well well, the chicks are now 7 days old (5 days at our house) and their growing like crazy.  Many of our friends want to come down to see them while their still chicks, but they better hurry as the chicks are growing fast.  All of them now have their adult wing feathers coming in, and some of them even have their tail feathers coming in.  They are now going through about 48 oz of food per day and about 3/4 of a gallon of water.  As for bedding, were needing to change clean out some of the poop daily and then clean out all of the bedding about every two to three days. 

One thing we didn't think about with our brooder (the house you use until they can go out to their coop outdoors) was a cover.  As the wing feathers come in they are starting to flap around and learn what their wings can actually do.  Although they cannot get out of the pool yet, were not too long from the time when they will.  So, due to this new phenomenon, I will be building some sort of mesh cover later on this weekend.  (I'll post pics as soon as I have some)

For now though enjoy the updated pictures and video of the chicks.

 

You have read correctly, I am surrounded by chicks, that of the fowl specices that is.  We received a call on Sunday afternoon (of course we wern't home at the time) that our chicks had arrived at the post office and that we could pick them up anytime after 5:30 AM on Monday. 

In order to ensure their safety, I arrived promptly at 5:30 and picked up some chicks.  After driving back home to a chorus of cherping, the chicks were unpacked and introducted to their new home (temporary until they can move outside).

 

Can you tell which one of the above chicks is the rare breed?

Ah.. A comfortable 95 degrees

And the kids thought that the new 6' pool was for them.