3/10/13 Chickens: Day 1
Today I drove all over the place looking for chickens. I
went to Reber Ranch first, then out to the Grange in Isaquah, then to Del’s in
Auburn, and finally to Coastal by the Supermall. They all had chicks, but I wanted particular
breeds. On my list were Americauna,
Araucana, Buff Orpingtons, Marans, or Barred Plymouth Rocks. I admit I wavered while I was looking at the
adorable little puffballs, and nearly ended up getting Austrolorps, but in the
end, I brought home one Buff Orpinton, who I named Trixie, and one Barred Rock,
who I named Cricket because she peeped and peeped at the top of her little
lungs.
I set them up in a brooder I made from a 100-gallon
galvanized stock tank filled with pine shavings covered in paper towels. I gave them a little jar lid of dirt and a
dandelion I pulled up from the veggie garden.
I put a piece of foam insulation over the top of the tank with just a
hole for the heat lamp on the side the insulation doesn’t cover.
Trixie spent the first day chasing Cricket everywhere. If Cricket pecked at a piece of pine shaving,
Trixie would race over to peck at it too.
I saw Trixie drink a lot of water, but Cricket only seemed to be pecking
at it, so I’m keeping an eye on her. I
didn’t see either of them actually eat any crumble, so I’ll have to make sure
they do today. Before bed, I went out to
check on them, and Trixie was sitting up with Cricket resting her head on
Trixie’s back, fast asleep. Trixie seems
to be the lookout. Every time I go out
there, Trixie is quietly looking back at me, but Cricket sleeps right through
it.
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3/11/13 Chickens: Day 2
I went out to get cat food this morning, and of course had
to check on the little peepers, who were actually quiet. Trixie is sitting in the little lid of dirt I
left for them, looking completely like she’s in a little nest. Cricket is stretched out in some of the pine
shavings she’s pulled onto the top of the paper towels, sound asleep. I think I’ll leave them alone this morning,
and not change out the water and everything until I get back from my doctor’s
appointment. They look so peaceful.
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3/14/13 Chickens: Day 5
We are up to our full four chickens now. Picked up Big Bird (as yet unnamed) on
Tuesday at Edgewood Chics. She is a
Black Copper Marans, was three weeks old, and a very sweet and docile
girl. She is more than halfway
feathered, so she looks rather awful. On
Wednesday, I picked up our Ameraucana at Coastal. She was one day old, had just arrived at the
store that day, and is the cutest little fluffball. You can already tell she’ll have a beard because
her face is extra fuzzy. I picked a
light colored one with a slight bit of grey on her head in hopes she’ll grow up
to be lavender or silver. I think those are the prettiest. The girls are all getting along great! They keep filling their water dish with pine
shavings, so I’m having to clean it out constantly. It seems like Cricket drinks the most water
of the four of them. I haven’t seen the
Ameraucana drink at all yet.
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3/19/13 Chickens: Day 10
Today I left the lid off the brooder while I took the girls’
water dish in the house to refill. When
I came out, Big Bird (still unnamed) was sitting on the edge of the brooder!
She had managed to fly herself up there!
She seemed a little confused as to how it had happened, and was a little
unstable still, but so cute!
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3/21/13 Chickens: Day 12
The girls are getting so big! All four of them have at least some wing
feathers now. Big Bird is almost fully feathered – only her head is still
fuzzy. Cricket’s wings are starting to
get barred with black and white, and Trixie’s feathers are growing in
brown. Scooter (the Ameraucana) is
getting a few little feathers too. Hers
are white at the tip, but there is some brown farther up. I’d been really hoping she’d turn out grey or
lavender, but no such luck.
Zach and I have been making sure to handle them all a lot so
they are comfortable with us. They still
act really scared when we reach in to grab one, but once they are in our hand,
they’ll all either perch or nestle down.
Very sweet.
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3/25/13 Chickens: Day… I don’t know.
This weekend we finally had a breakthrough on the coop
plans. We couldn’t decide if we wanted
to spend the money on building my dream coop (from ana-white.com), or buying a
premade coop. We looked at bunches of
coops online and at Coastal Farm & Ranch, but they all looked like a total
pain to clean. We found a shed at Lowe’s
that would work with some mods, but in the end decided we’d be happier with the
one we built, plus it would be a little less expensive. So the current plan is to buy supplies next
Saturday morning and get started on it then.
It won’t be too soon either, because all the girls are in molt getting
their feathers. Trixie is looking the
most unfortunate, poor girl. Cricket is
trying her best to fly, so she is definitely going to like going outside when
the day comes. Also, we finally named
the big girl Mercy. Kind of to go with
the French merci and also because I
suggested Mercedes.
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3/26/13 Chickens:
I cleaned out the brooder today, and the chicks huddled in
the corner terrified of being scooped up, but as soon as I replaced their dish
of dirt, it was like a party. They’re
pushing and shoving trying to get the best spot to scratch, and snatching
wiggly worms out of each others’ beaks.
Merci has started clucking like a grown up chicken today too!
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