New house guests

In reply to RevRico :

That should do the trick!

They've been shadow boxing for some time now

bed time

If you have the room, we put our chicks in a kiddie pool in the basement while they are inside. When they are big enough to jump out you can circle it with chicken wire

In reply to BlindPirate :

No basement, and I can't fit a pool in the living room. I have my daughter's from over the summer, but it just won't fit. 

Little chicks got adventurous last night so I had to make the cardboard taller. Same chick weaseled her way out twice in about 5 minutes.

Hmm being weird about me posting pictures again, but they looked noticeably larger when I came downstairs this morning.

Damn are these pics GIANT on my laptop... Sorry peoples. My chick grit came in today, so I attempted to give them some hardboiled egg. Should be big enough if they have grit. They're unsure about it though. I'm going to leave it there a while longer then toss it out and get them some more dirt, as they really liked playing in the dirt and it's good to boost their immune system. 

I keep getting this when I try posting from my phone. It started at picture number 4 inside of a minute yesterday, but today on the first one I tried to upload. 

PS, could one of the mods put "chickens" somewhere in the title ?

We're relatively new Chicken-havers also.  Mrs. Sparks came home with a mother and 3 chicks from our goat-farm friends' place last spring.  One of the chicks had a defect (crooked beak, couldn't eat naturally) so we now just have the 3, total.  

I'm totally hands-off with them...it's all the Mrs'ses project.  So far, they are surprisingly unoffensive to have around.  They roam around the property looking for stuff to eat.  In just the past couple weeks they started laying eggs.  So...that's a plus, obviously.  They're also supposed to be good at eating pests like ticks, but I'm skeptical they'll put a noticeable dent in the population.  They sure are adept at catching grasshopper-type insects.

One night  this winter she forgot to shut the coop and an opossum tore one of them up pretty bad but she survived (with quite a bit of input from the Mrs.).  As many foxes, opossums, raccoons, coyotes, sasquatches, hawks, eagles, etc. as we have out here, it's surprising they have lasted as long as they have.

They learn very quickly where food comes from (easy food comes from Mrs. Sparks) and we have zero worries about them wandering away.   They can fly better than I thought they could, but they really just don't do it very often.

They're also very tuned-in to aerial predators. One day I was flying the little quadcopter and got a video of them running for cover when I came over the top of the house to where they were.   Just today I watched them huddle under a chair in the yard because there was a large bird circling in the vicinity.

We're outside of town enough that we don't have neighbors close enough for them to wander to and bother (at least so far).  They mostly stay within sight of the places we go on a regular basis (house, barn, and the are between).

Silverlight Green Egger

Barred Rock

Light Brahma

Rhode Island Red. 

Just a glimpse into the future of this thread. At least they'll be easy to identify. 

The pics look normal size on my phone.

They will eat hard boiled eggs?  That’s surprising to me.

Isnt feeding chickens hard boiled eggs cannibalism?

Eggs are accepted as the perfect snack/treat for chicks. Super healthy, it was only a few days ago they were eating egg yolk really. When they're older and laying, mashing the shells into the eggs helps give them the extra calcium they need. 

Always cook and grind or smash the egg shells and eggs though. Once a chicken gets a taste for raw egg, they'll eat them all straight out of the nests, or so I'm told by the crazy chicken forum people. Think miata purist or porsche purist, but about taking care of birds. 

Chicken people make Porsche people seem rational.

Pretty sure our chicken days are over so I'm really enjoying following along with this. 

Mndsm said:

Isnt feeding chickens hard boiled eggs cannibalism?

That's the initial knee-jerk reaction, but when you really think about it, the egg is there to grow a chicken (feed it).  So feeding eggs to chickens is not really even as weird as people drinking cow milk.  It'd be more like adult humans nursing.  Wait.  Now it's weird again.  

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Chicken people make Porsche people seem rational.

You'll have to explain that one.  Chickens are cheap to acquire, virtually maintenance-free, cheap to feed, and they lay eggs.   Last I checked, none of those things apply to Porsche's.

He's talking about the people associated with each obsession.  Not the obsession itself ;)

Today's picture update. I rebuilt everything this morning when I got up. Changed the bedding, reversed the kennel so I can put a lid on it and get the light out of my eyes, raised the food and water up onto 2x4 stubs which is helping with cleanliness, and rebuilt the electric hen.

Hen still didn't seem to be working, I'm suspecting a broken heating pad because I don't feel E36 M3 when it's on. They like climbing it, and I used some duct tape so it's not as slippery, so it can stay in.

I had to retreat 2 of them for pasty butt yesterday. I'm a little worried about the one Brahma, but the silver seems fine. 

Wing feathers are coming in nicely. 

they're coming in very well, even since yesterday. It must be bed time, they're fighting over the highest spot in the kennel. 

Oddly ignoring the meal worms. Weird chickens don't like treats

They'll start trying to roost very soon. Give them something like a 2x4 on edge and they'll start to hop up on it to nap. Mine were roosting well before they were big enough to be wandering out in the yard. 

ClemSparks said:

He's talking about the people associated with each obsession.  Not the obsession itself ;)

Hmmm.  I wonder how many Porsche owners also keep chickens?  I bet that's a pretty exclusive club!

RevRico said:

Oddly ignoring the meal worms. Weird chickens don't like treats

Give them time.  My birds will devour them.  I bet yours will too when they're bigger.

Honestly, until I moved the young ones outside in late Spring, all they ever got to eat was the medicated chick starter feed.

This thread brings me such joy

We have 4 in our backyard that we got last year.  They have somewhat distinct characteristics and personalities based on the breeds (with some variation I am sure):

The Road Island Red is pretty chatty and a regular egg producer (she will sometimes follow you around and yell at you for some reason, wants treats I suspect). The Golden Sexlink is rather mellow and and a regular egg producer. The Bardrock is a bit of a loaner, but also likes to jump on you shoulder if you bend down.  A bit lower on egg production. The Blue Andelusian is probably the most skittish and started out being rather noisy, but has since quieted down.

The also have different "voices".  The Bardrock is the most interesting in that she many times makes these bizarre throaty squawks that sound like they came straight out of the Jurassic period.  

They really don't stink if you clean up their poop regularly.  They also love to eat weeds, so I will dig them up and throw them next to the run fence.

Here they are in their rather awkward "teen" stage:

More mature:

Literally squealing with joy. The chickens, of course, want nothing to do with her.

So far they have been named Angus, meatball, macaroni, and hey hey, but she keeps pointing to different ones when she says their names so who knows.

 put the feeder at shoulder height they said, it will prevent spillage they said. BullE36 M3.

So big day to day.