What I have learned about chickens thus far

Today our chicks are 12 days old.  They hatched on June 18th, and arrived here on the 19th.

Here's what I have learned so far:

• Chicken TV is the best TV channel you can have.  They're both amusing and adorable, even as they start to feather out.

Sleeping, at 5 days old.

• They grow fast!!
• In growing, they start to sprout feathers too.  First is the wings, and then the tail - they've been running around looking like there are little paintbrushes sprouting out of their butts.

8 days old, and they're sprouting paintbrushes and wing feathers.  They're even more feathered now.

• They move fast too.  And as soon as the feathers started coming, they started to jump. They jump to chase mosquitos, get on to and off of the rocks in the brooder, get into the middle of their huddle in the corner, and get on top of the feeder.  And sometimes, they jump just for fun.
• Yesterday, they started challenging each other.  They stand up as tall as they can, stretch their wings a little bit, and chest-bump each other.  It's like we suddenly have a brood of little gangsters in the barn!  Maybe the challengers are the males...?
• When they catch a bug, if it's too big to gulp down they run around and tell everyone about it.  Which results in a chase, and the bug (now long dead) being picked apart in the melee, so it is in bite-sized pieces.  Clever, chicks!

• Finally, they taught me that I can't just go by what a chicken book says; I have to adapt the environment for this batch of chicks.  For example, the Storey's guide to raising chickens states that brooder temperature for 1-7 day old chicks should be 35ºC.  These chicks have never liked it at 35º, they much prefer it at 28º.  And now that our days are getting warmer, they prefer 23º.  According to the book, they shouldn't be at 23ºC until they're over a month old.  But if I had followed the book, and ignored the chick's wall-crowding, they would have all been roasted waaaay too young.

This is how they spread out when the temperature is ideal.  Here they were 2 days old,  and it was between 38º and 28º, depending on which thermometer you looked at.  They're mostly out in the 25º area.

It's been an exciting week with the chicks.  And we haven't gotten much else done.  With the recent rush of projects we completed, we've both been exhausted.  Regarding projects last weekend, we did: nothing.  And this weekend, I've so far accomplished: nothing.    Of course, we've been getting the usual stuff done: getting groceries, picking up materials for the next project (chicken run and coop-ification of another outbuilding), looking after the chicks, and we've made a concerted effort to keep the house clean.  (With two of us, two cats, and two dogs in such a small house, things tend to get out of hand very quickly.  Especially because I have a subconscious drive to cover every horizontal surface with, well, stuff.  Mostly paperwork and mail, which I then spend 20 minutes searching the house for.)

The highlight of last weekend was the Dog Expo at the local historical attraction.  Zim and I went with Kim and Doodle, and we all had a great time.  Doodle and Kim even participated in the dog parade!  We had fun wandering the site, watching the sheepdog demonstration, and giving the pups a chance to socialize with each other and with other dogs.

Everyone lined up for the dog parade.

The weather has been very nice for the past few days, hitting 25º and 26º and staying that warm until 8 or 9 pm.  This means that the house slowly warms up too.  As soon as I repot my aloe plants and take them back to work, I can hang curtains in the office window again, which will greatly help keep out the sun, as that's our only south-facing window.

And how's about a quick garden update too:
The peas are great, except the ones Diamond dug up.  The corn is looking good too - not any taller, but the leaves are getting broader each day.  We have a few cabbage coming up (of of the 30 we planted), and lots of turnips, but no cucumbers or pumpkins.  I think we have 3 carrots sprouting, out of 900 seeds - I'm very disappointed, but I suppose there's time for that to turn around.  The onions all died, and the lettuce hasn't sprouted.  But the majority of the potatoes are doing great!  I have some kale seeds I've been meaning to plant - maybe I'll get those done today (if the weather ever makes up its mind about whether it's going to rain).  It's a little late to be starting them, but they're hardy enough to withstand a light frost in the fall.  And as for the berry garden: we have strawberries coming, and a few are ready to eat.  The raspberries from Hal have mostly all died, except for three or four canes - this is saddening.  I don't know where I went wrong there.  Our raspberries, however, are getting ready to put out berries - I estimate we'll have some within 2 weeks.  The lemon balm I planted, as well as the chives and rhubarb that were there previously, are all doing great.  And in the greenhouse, the tomatoes are doing fabulous!!!  No flowers or fruit yet, but I have hopes that they'll get there soon.  Everything else is doing good too - the basil wilts often but always comes back, the oregano just loves the greenhouse, and the flowers from Hal and Cathy are doing good too.  I've even managed to save the mock orange - I was overwatering it.  That seems to be a common problem with me....  My aloes are home right now because they need to be repotted after a near-death brush with root rot caused by, you guessed it, too much love and attention.  Their 'leaves' are all pink, deflated and curly.  Oops.  It takes talent to kill an aloe, you know.

That's about all that's new here.  We were hoping for some company next week, but no luck there, as plans have changed.  But we have some more lined up in mid-to-late July, and we're looking forward to it!  Now if only I could hook up the water in the longhouse without burning the darn thing down.....

Plants, dogs, bats and chicks!

As always, we've been busy!

After the last post, we finished working on the garden and got everything planted.  We tilled the whole thing twice, went and got a truck box full of compost from the city dump (it's beautiful stuff, and only $24!), and then tilled that in as well.  The next day I went out and marked the bed areas, and spent the next two weeks planting everything.  And now things are starting to grow: the peas were up first, followed by the turnips and the potatoes.  There are a few carrots peeking though, but still nothing from the pumpkins, lettuce or cucumbers.  And the corn is doing great.

Driving the little skid steer to fill the truck box with compost

Our third pass with the tiller

Planted!

 We have also been fostering a dog from the rescue.  She is a very sweet, older lab named Diamond.  Her house manners are impeccable, and she is very well behaved.  We would keep her if our darn house wasn't so small!!!

Zim and Diamond the day we started fostering her

We've also bought a new lawn tractor - the quad towing the brusher just wasn't cutting it (pardon the pun).  Jordan indicated that he greatly desired a proper lawn tractor, so off we went to pick up a new John Deere.  He now greatly enjoys cutting the grass, which is fabulous because I would rather just get sheep or goats to mow it, but that's not possible right now with our continued lack of fencing.  Next year I'm sure we'll be able to focus on it!

This past weekend, we re-skinned the greenhouse.  The tree nursery up the road sells their greenhouse plastic from last year for cheap: 30 by 140 feet for $60.  We took the old plastic off, cut new strapping pieces to hold the new stuff on, cut the new stuff to size, and accordion-folded it so we could get it on fairly easy.  We cut some lengths of nylon rope and prepared the plastic for installation by rolling pop cans in the corners and center of the short end and tying the plastic around the cans with the rope (see photo).  We then threw the loose ends of the ropes over the greenhouse and used the ropes to pull the plastic over.

I don't even remember where I heard of this method, but it works!!!

There were a few small snags, but all in all we're pleased with how it turned out.

Finished product - a newly skinned greenhouse.  This should last us for at least two years.  It's still on the North side of the house, but sometimes you have to pick your battles.  There's too much else going on to worry about moving it right now, unfortunately.

After that marathon 10-hour day, we used to following day to complete some smaller projects.  For example, I finally finished the bat house!

It's stained properly, I promise, it's just covered in spruce pollen.

 Jordan helped me hang it on the back of the shop.  Now we can get around to getting rid of the bats for good!

I also got the stall set up for the chicks.

Ready and waiting

 We ordered 25 buff orpingtons, which is a dual-purpose heritage breed.  They arrived this morning, and I raced down to the Canada Post warehouse to pick them up.

A whole box of adorable!!!

 They chirped quite noisily the whole way home - they can make quite a racket!!!  I got them home, and started the process of transferring them from box to brooder stall: pick them up, check their vent to make sure it was clean (an important indicator of chick health!), dip their beaks in the water and then the food, and let them go, triumphantly counting each one.  The ones in the stall were quiet once a few of their siblings joined them, and the first thing I noticed is that they sleep in very odd positions.

Here are two (one behind the one standing) who just lay down on their sides and stretched their legs for a quick little nap.

I introduced them to all the other critters around here: I took one in the house to meet the cats (they were curious, but didn't show any sign of being predatory).  Then, as I unloaded the box, I would periodically hold one out to Zim and Diamond.  Diamond was uninterested for the most part.  Zim, on the other hand, was both intrigued and scared.  He was looking over the stall divider quite intently, but when I held one up he'd back away really quickly.  Then he'd take a few very curious steps forward, and if the chick moved, he'd immediately back away again.  This was the first time he got close enough to actually sniff one:

"What the heck is that?!!!  Does it bite?"

He's now quite enamoured with them, and wants to be in the brooder stall with me when I'm in there.  That's not going to happen, of course, and I keep poking his paws off the divider as he tries to get a closer look.

Of course, I am also enamoured with the chicks.  They're cute!  And they're also curious.  Some of them don't trust the thermometer:

Peck! Peck!

And they continue to sleep in odd places and positions - this one fell asleep with his head jammed up against the end of the feeder, while everyone else scrambled over him this way and that.

Zzzzzzzz

They only seem to sleep for a minute or two, then they're up and wandering around, chatting quietly to each other, eating, drinking, and chasing bugs and other things found on the floor of the brooder.

Yes, they are so far into the feeder that their butts stick up in the air as they gorge themselves.  Silly chicks.

 And, just to prove that I can still pay attention to other things, look at these tomatoes:

 Aren't they awesome?!  They were small, spindly things when I put them in the greenhouse three weeks ago, as they weren't able to get enough light while they were inside the house.  Now that they're out in the greenhouse, they are doing amazing - their stalks have bulked up and they're putting out new leaves like it's going out of style.  Good job, tomatoes!  I hope they continue to thrive, and I get a few this year :)  Next year, we'll rig up a better lighting system (instead of relying on our big, east-facing window) and hopefully they do much better.

So there you have it - another busy few weeks.  Our time-sensitive large projects are now mostly complete, and things will hopefully start slowing down.  We will have friends and family coming to visit us in July, and we're looking forward to that!!!!