Chickens Get Their Nesting Box

The chicken coop isn't finished yet but our Orpingtons have started to lay eggs so I put the nesting box that my husband made into the stall where the chickens are temporarily.

Isn't that a fantastic nesting box!

Chickens Outside - Video

Chicken Genders

As our baby chicks grow up we are trying to determine male from female.  I plan to keep one friendly rooster and the rest will end up on our plates in the fall.  At least, that's the plan for now.  I was talking about the different ways to tell a rooster from a hen and guessing which was which.  My daughter matter-of-factly said, "You just don't know, until they crow!"  LOL

Bigger Brooder

The chicks had to move up to a bigger brooder.  Unfortunately, the coop isn't finished, otherwise, they could move outside.  The ducks are now outside and I am happy about that!

Tigger Meets the Chicks Video

Chicks Outside Video

Chicks Outside

I took the chicks outside for the first time the other day.  I put them in the dog kennel while I cleaned out their brooder.  I went to get them water and when I came back, this is what I saw:

My daughter was in the kennel with the chicks all huddled in her lap like she was their mother hen!

Surprise Eggs

I found this stash of eggs in a corner of one of our stalls under the garden stakes!  There were 20 eggs.  The irony is that our chicks are all still in the brooder in our basement.  These eggs were layed by a chicken that belongs to the neighbor next door. 😉

Check out the difference between the store-bought egg (white) and the egg laid by the neighbor's chicken (brown).

Chicks with worms

The chicks were really excited about their first worms!

Chick chasing duckling

The ducklings are much bigger than the chicks but the chicks still chase the ducklings around.  The ducklings will go splash in the water and then get a mouthful of food.  Some of the food will stick to the outside of the ducklings' bills and the chicks chase them around trying to peck at the food.

Chicks and Ducks Video

It was time to split up the chicks and ducklings.  The ducklings were making such a mess with the water that the chicks weren't able to get a drink.  They were always rushing to the waterer when I refilled it.  They are all growing so fast!

Our New Baby Chicks and Ducks

Here are the boxes of chicks and ducks from Tractor Supply.  There are 12 chicks in the white box and 4 large ducklings in the red box.  The bottom fell out of the duckling box right as I was putting it in the car.  Thankfully, none of the ducks fell out and we made it all of the way home!

We set up our brooder in a water trough.  We bought it special for this purpose but when the chicks and ducklings are done with it we can use it for the horses in the Fall.  The chicks and ducklings need a heat lamp and a temperature about 95 degrees.  I had some trouble figuring out how to rig up the heat lamp! The ducklings try to swim in the waterer we bought and splash all of the water out until there isn't any left for them to drink. I also used some tops from tin containers to make a feeder but didn't like it so switched it for an ice cube tray.

We bought 12 chicks total. The one in the picture to the right is a Barred Rock. We bought 2 of these. We also bought 6 Orpington chicks and 4 Isa Brown chicks. The Isa Browns were sexed so we know they are all girls. The Orpington and Barred Rock are straight run so we have no idea what they are. All of them are good egg layers and the larger birds so also good for butchering.  We will only keep one rooster so if we have more than one (which is likely) they will be butchered this Summer.  All of the types we bought are supposed to be friendly.

On the left is one of our ducklings.  You can also see them in the picture on the right along with some of the chicks.  I'm not sure what type of ducks they are, Tractor Supply didn't have a breed type on them.  The picture showed them to be brown or brown and white when they get their feathers.

Chickens

These are the neighbor's chickens in our barn.  They are taking a dirt bath in one of our stalls.  The cool thing about this video is that you can also hear dogs barking, Kinka meowing, one of the chickens clucking, the guinea hens from next door and a rooster crowing all in this one video.  Listen closely and see if you can hear all five sounds.