Girls Lined Up on Their Brooder

These were fun pictures to take.  I was standing in the kitchen cleaning out their waterer and feeder, when Iris flew up on the edge of the brooder.  Bessie and Charli followed immediately after.  I thought this would be a fun picture, so I put the rest of the girls on the edge too.  When I was about to take the picture, Buffi flew from the brooder onto my arm.  Honestly, it kind of startled me.

28-days-old photo shoot

We have used the same cake pedestal for all of the pictures, so hopefully it gives a reference for how big the girls are getting.

 Bessie is still shy around us, but when we do grab her and let her roost on our arms, she loves it.

 Notice the name change to Bo Roo.  You can see his comb and waddle pretty good here.

 We decided to get the buff girls leg bands, as they are getting harder to tell apart.

 Cassi is sweet and loves to climb on us and roost high.

 Anytime the cover of the brooder is off, Charli will jump/fly up to the edge of the rubbermaid tote.

 Dotti and Cassi are twinners.  They are always by each other.  Cassi loves to roost on us and therefore, Dotti gives into the peer pressure.

Iris is still the sweetest, she wastes no time jumping up on the waterer/feeder so she can look out of the brooder and see what is happening.  This position also gives her first dibs on jumping onto one of us. :)

Decided we better pick up the pace with the coop.

We had a guy that built our shed last year build us a coop kit.  This included the 4 walls and roof.  He was way cheap and the coop is awesome.  Here is his website if you are interested: http://www.topshedkits.com.  I told him what I wanted and what I envisioned and he made it happen, all for about $50 more than it would have cost me to build it.

 This is the 2 foot high platform that the coop will sit on.

 Here is the north side of the coop with the pop door.  You can also see the hardware cloth that is buried about 8 inches then bent outward about 6 inches.  I plan on putting a vent on the bottom left and a gable vent up high.

 This is the wet side door.  The entire side opens and should make coop cleaning easier.

 This is the south side.  The window will hopefully provide enough ventilation.  Again I will put a gable vent up high.  The east side of the coop is barely visible.  It is framed for an external nest box.

Here is the finished outside coop with shingles.  (still have to paint inside, install roosts, etc.)

The portable chicken run

Here is the PVC chicken run.  I know that I broke every rule by using chicken wire, but this will only be used when we are home and supervising the girls.  My son and I spent about 2 hours putting this together.  The girls seem to really love being outside, especially now that the weather is getting warmer.

Side-by-side. 21 day and 7 day old comparisons

Here are some of the comparisons that my wife did.  It is hard to believe how much they have grown!!

Girls are 21 days old, we have had them for 2 weeks

Well the girls are definitely growing fast.  They have some good tail feathers and the feathers on their backs  are beginning to poke through.  Cassi, Iris, and Dotti are for sure the most friendly.  They will jump right on our hands and like to have their necks and backs stroked.  Bo is looking bigger than the rest everyday, he has a definite comb and waddle now(I am thinking he is for sure a rooster).  Charli is the loudest chirper and we know when she is not happy because she will chirp-chirp-chirp.  Buffi and Bessie are still unsure of us.  They will sit contently on us, but they will not jump on our hands.  This week we also took them outside and we built them a PVC run that is 4x8x2.  They enjoy playing in the grass and scratching.

14 day photos

We have had the chicks for 1 week now and they are 14 days old.  They have already started to develop some pretty unique personalities.  Bessie is just layed back and flies under the radar, doesn't really get worked up unless there are treats in the brooder.  Bo Peep is always pushing her way into the group whether they are eating or sleeping.  She is just enough different from the rest of the Barred Rocks and her tail feathers are just barely coming in.  She was named by my son.  We are hoping she is not a rooster.  Buffi is cute and is the second smallest, she enjoys roosting on our fingers.  Cassi and Dotti are twinners. They are hard to tell apart except for small color differences in their wing feathers.  Charli is the smallest of the bunch and likes to let us know she is around as she has loud chirps.  She was named by my daughter.  Iris is my wife's favorite.  She has a sweet temperament and will just fall asleep on your hand, arm, or wherever she finds a comfortable place.

Impressions of the first few days!

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there?   I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt." - Unknown


This is sooooo true, and with how much chickens poo, luckily for the person who said this, it was an egg that came out next and not one of the 4000 poos per day per chicken. :)


Impression 1)  Chickens poo all the time, I read forums, books, the internet, everything I could.  Every source said they poo a lot; nothing could have prepared me for how much.  Luckily the girls are cute.


Impression 2)  I am actually surprised at how little noise they make.  We are keeping them in the kitchen right now until it warms up a little and we can move them to the garage.  I thought they would be loud and chirping all the time.  They are actually really quiet.


Impression 3)  They can move.  I can't believe how fast they can run.  They are getting more difficult to catch, even in a small brooder.  However, once we catch them, they love to roost on our fingers and just look around.  Their little eyes are constantly looking around for the next thing to peck.


Impression 4)  I waste a lot of time just watching them interact with each other.  In fact, I was told by my wife "it's a good thing you are not home all the time, you would get nothing done."  It's funny how they will just walk over each other when they are sleeping and steal food from each other.

The Girls 9 days old photo shoot

These are the girls!! It was fun doing a little photo shoot with them.  We have had them now for 4 days.  They are starting to show such fun personalities.  Their favorite treat is scrambled eggs...but they have the funnest time with spaghetti.  They also like cottage cheese.  Cantalope was not such a good choice...they didn't even try that.  They have little tail feathers ( all except Bo Peep...please don't be a boy) They are also starting to get little feathers on their shoulder blades...do chickens have shoulder blades??  :)  We are having a great time.  They are getting faster and are starting to try and fly away when we try and hold them.  We are excited for this new adventure. 

Is it Legal??!!

When we decided a few months ago that it would be a good thing for our kids to learn some hard work and responsibility by raising and caring for chickens, we thought we had better look into our city's ordinances.  We found that our neighborhood was not zoned for chickens, even though we live in a farming town.  We also learned that we would need to pay $200 for a conditional use permit and that our neighbors within 600 feet of our lot would need to approve of this permit.  Luckily we have some good friends who serve on the city council.  When we told them of our desire to have chickens and the barriers to us having them, they set out to change the ordinance.  Needless to say a few council meetings later and a very persuasive argument from my 11 year old son, we got the ordinance changed.  The new ordinance allows up to 10 hens, no roosters, and a coop that must be at least 35 feet from our neighbors' homes and NO FEES.  YEAH!!!!