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Chicks Have Arrived
| Posted on April 10, 2010 at 5:56 PM |
Purchased and brought home our chicks today. Six Black Sex-Link chicks that within a 95% confidence level should all be females. Had the brood box already set up with a heat lamp in one corner, soft wood shavings for litter, chick starter feed and feeder, and a chick water container set up on a block of wood to reduce the amount of bedding kicked into the water. The brood box is set up in our shop, which has heaters running in it.
They all seem to be doing well with the transition – eating, drinking, sleeping, and busily scratching away in the shavings. I took a short video to share them with you. No narration, just the sound of tiny peeps! The image is red tinged at times because the heat lamp has a red bulb.
The sun came out (finally) today and I set all the tomato plants outside to allow them to enjoy direct sunlight. The entire bunch is getting quite large and it is time to begin a slow hardening off process with all of them.
Short post today. I can hardly tear myself away from watching those chicks. Simply adorable and it is clear that they are all unique individuals. My daughter is suggesting we name them after the female characters in “Gone with the Wind” (Scarlet, Melanie, etc. ) and if by chance we do end up with a rooster… he can be Rhett. What do you think we should name them?
Categories: Chickens, Video, Plants
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16 Comments
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Annie's Granny
11:18 PM on April 10, 2010
How adorable! It brings back memories of Grandma keeping baby chicks warm behind the old wood cook stove.. I can still feel their softness and smell their sweetness some sixty-five years later!
Your tomatoes are looking fabulous. Sick or not, I had to pot mine up today, as just two days of neglect had them growing right up and over the lights. They got leggy really fast, so I'm trying to keep them a bit cooler now. I'm not sure how cold it gets in the shed, I had them in the garage last year, and they got heat from the house. I'll probably be awake half the night, monitoring the temperature.
Your tomatoes are looking fabulous. Sick or not, I had to pot mine up today, as just two days of neglect had them growing right up and over the lights. They got leggy really fast, so I'm trying to keep them a bit cooler now. I'm not sure how cold it gets in the shed, I had them in the garage last year, and they got heat from the house. I'll probably be awake half the night, monitoring the temperature.
Annie's Granny - I am going to probably be up half the night worrying about the temp for the chicks too. They seem to be quite comfortable but I am worried they will get too cold at the chilliest part of the night (early morning). My tomatoes have been in the greenhouse for the past week without going into the heated shop or house at night and have been doing just fine (as you can see in the picture).
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Thomas
07:33 AM on April 12, 2010
Oh how cool. I saw chicks at the local feed store the other day was so tempted to buy a few....but the last thing I need right now are hens to care for...haha...I can barely take care of myself at the moment.
Your tomatoes look great. I've been hardening my early sowing for a while now and think I'll plant them under my hoops very soon. They seem ready for permanent home.
Your tomatoes look great. I've been hardening my early sowing for a while now and think I'll plant them under my hoops very soon. They seem ready for permanent home.
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Daphne
09:45 AM on April 12, 2010
Those tomato seedlings are huge. Mine are always so much smaller when I put them in. I just don't have the room to grow big ones (or a greenhouse). The chicks are so adorable. You must be having a great time with them.
Symbiotic relationship is right...I see some chicken manure (once cooled down 6 months) as a great soil additive, yo!
I like chickens...just in the McNugget version...I know, I know. It's horrible.
I like chickens...just in the McNugget version...I know, I know. It's horrible.
This is exciting! They are adorable and will provide lots of entertainment. I've heard chicken are the closes things to dinosaurs left on earth.
Thomas - They bring out the "mother hen" in me, so I worry about the little mites probably more than I need to. I hope you are over your flu and on the mend. I will be planting up the container tomatoes this coming weekend for sure and depending on the forecast, may be planting out the garden tomatoes as well (but with a grow tunnel cover over them). They are all pretty much ready to either be planted up or repotted to another size up container.
Daphne - The tomatoes are really flourishing this year. I think the fast move out to the greenhouse that I did proved to be a big booster to their vitality. I usually wait a while longer to move them out but this year I put a heat mat in the greenhouse and moved them out much faster to make room under the grow lights. The tomatoes have gone crazy with growth as a result. I think the natural light is just so much better for them then the artificial environment. That's my theory at least. I am definitely enjoying the chicks! We moved them into a larger brooder area tonight and they were so much fun to watch cavorting around the much bigger area.
Jim G - Not horrible at all. We eat a lot of chicken too. These girls are safe from that as I want a layer flock and will likely treat these as pets that produce eggs, but it does not stop me from enjoying chicken for dinner too.
Dan - They are absolutely mesmerizing to watch. I can definitely see the connection of birds to dinosaurs - chickens in particular. They are quite the little characters. The smallest one of the bunch is the fiestiest of all and kicks everyone away from the feeder. No worries about her being picked on despite her smaller size.
Daphne - The tomatoes are really flourishing this year. I think the fast move out to the greenhouse that I did proved to be a big booster to their vitality. I usually wait a while longer to move them out but this year I put a heat mat in the greenhouse and moved them out much faster to make room under the grow lights. The tomatoes have gone crazy with growth as a result. I think the natural light is just so much better for them then the artificial environment. That's my theory at least. I am definitely enjoying the chicks! We moved them into a larger brooder area tonight and they were so much fun to watch cavorting around the much bigger area.
Jim G - Not horrible at all. We eat a lot of chicken too. These girls are safe from that as I want a layer flock and will likely treat these as pets that produce eggs, but it does not stop me from enjoying chicken for dinner too.
Dan - They are absolutely mesmerizing to watch. I can definitely see the connection of birds to dinosaurs - chickens in particular. They are quite the little characters. The smallest one of the bunch is the fiestiest of all and kicks everyone away from the feeder. No worries about her being picked on despite her smaller size.
I love your daughters idea of naming them, we were just talking about watching that movie again.:) I'm looking forward to hearing more about the birds as we will possibly be adding to our little flock next year and I might try a different breed...right now we have Rhode Island Reds.
The tomatoes are looking great.
The tomatoes are looking great.
Mike - The Black Sex Link chicken is a cross of a red Rhode Island Red male and a Barred Rock female. So they will have a lot of the characteristics of the Rhode Island Reds you are used to. Sex-Links can be sexed at hatching, usually by color but sometimes by feather development. They are a hybrid cross which are hardier and more productive than their parents' respective breeds. The down side to them is that as a hybrid they will not breed true - so if you are looking to produce your own chicks they are not a good option. I am trying to go for a flock of all females and not worry about breeding - just purchase replacement chicks as needed to revitalize an aging flock or for losses. These seemed like a good breed for my intended purposes.
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Daphne
08:14 AM on April 14, 2010
I think the natural light is best too if you have a full day of it. I always bring my seedlings outside on good days and they really grow faster that way.
Yeah!! Welcome to the world of chickens! They are absolutely wonderful. I think everyone should have them. They eat leftovers, turn your garden and fertilize everywhere they go. Then you get eggs as a reward for all their hard work. What could be better than that?
Daphne - I think I just need to start moving things to the greenhouse sooner in general to take advantage of that phenomenon.
hsheather - Hopefully those of you with lots of chicken experience will stand ready to answer questions as they come up. So far though we are doing splendidly and I swear the chicks are growing by the hour!
hsheather - Hopefully those of you with lots of chicken experience will stand ready to answer questions as they come up. So far though we are doing splendidly and I swear the chicks are growing by the hour!
I think Rhett is an excellent name for a rooster. :-) Our rooster - a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a New Hampshire Red - is named Rob, after a brave red-haired dork in Terry Prachett's "Wee Free Men". ;-)
Thanks for the tip on clicking the chicken link. I hope soon that sort of link wil produce similar reading material on my blog.
So, I've found out most of what I wanted to know by reading everything. You've given me great ideas too. I think I have an old octagonal kid gate that would work as a teenager run and a smallish tractor.
One question I had was what did you use for a brooder box? I've got tons of 18 gallon Rubbermaid bins that I was thinking of using for 4 chicks. Thoughts?
Thanks!
So, I've found out most of what I wanted to know by reading everything. You've given me great ideas too. I think I have an old octagonal kid gate that would work as a teenager run and a smallish tractor.
One question I had was what did you use for a brooder box? I've got tons of 18 gallon Rubbermaid bins that I was thinking of using for 4 chicks. Thoughts?
Thanks!
Sinfonian - we used a big storage container for their first box but we moved htem out of it and into a much larger cardboard box brooder in less than a weeks time. They grow fast and that was just way too small. They have to have room to get out from the heat lamp so they do not overheat but still need to be able to quickly get near it to warm up as needed. The portable dog run turned out to be ideal and worked clear up to the point we moved them to their coop.
Interesting. Maybe I'll have to take back the ottoman box I gave my inventor son to play with. It's big enough for a larger brooding box. Unfortunately my wife says we got rid of the octagonal supergate that would have been good for teenagers. Guess I could build a fence around a kiddy pool I've got. Thanks!
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