Raising Chickens

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Our chicken arrived a couple of weeks ago. We got a phone call from the Post Office early in the morning (did you know that the Post Office is open for pick ups at 6:00 am?) telling us that our chickens had arrived. We had called them the day before, when we knew that they were shipped, so they would know to expect them. I picked them up right after I dropped the kids off at school, and hurried home so we could get them food and water. How many wives do you know that come home telling their husbands that she picked up some chicks for him?

We had a big bin from Costco that we filled with pine wood shavings to keep them in initially. We ordered a food dispenser and water dispenser from the place we ordered the chicks from, so we got that all set up. Apparently, they need a little priming to learn where the water is, so we picked them up one by one and put their little beaks in the water before we let them go in the bin. We also bought a red heat lamp for them. We read somewhere that you could keep a red light on all day and not stress them out.

It didn't take long before the chicks started looking cramped in the bin, so we got some corrugated cardboard chicken fence and made a little brooder for them. It's amazing how sturdy cardboard can be! They are still in the garage with the heat lamp to keep them warm.

We have five female light brahmas, five female and one male Cuckoo Marans, and five female and one male Easter Eggers.

My biggest lesson was that you have to make sure the their "vents" are clear. That means that if you see poop sticking to their little bottoms, you get to clean their "vents" by sticking their bottoms in warm water to soften the poop and clean it up. To get their body temperature back to normal, we held them under the heat lamp and close to our bodies for a while before putting them back in the pen. Apparently, we'll have to keep this up even when they are adults.

So far they seem very happy and healthy. It won't be long until we can put them outside. I think it takes about four to five weeks before they can regulate their own body temperature. We'll have a coop that will be entirely enclosed for nigh time as well as room for them to wander and peck during the day.