You’ve all heard of Shark Week, but it’s time to buckle your seat belts for “Chick Weeks!” It’s bound to be an adventure if Week 1 and Week 2 will set the tone 🙂
Through 4-H, Jackson signed up for what is known as the “Chick Chain.” This is a program where the kids put in a $25 deposit and they get about 25 day-old chicks to raise. At the Robertson County Fair in the Fall, they bring 6 of the pullets for auction. The kid gets their deposit back, and the money raised from the auction goes to support 4-H Poultry programs. Plus, the kid gets to keep whatever other chickens they kept alive. It is really an awesome program, especially for those of us who are serious about keeping a steady/increasing home egg production going.
On the Monday of “Chick Week,” the kids went to Dorris Milling for a photo op and a free bag of chick starter feed. Not a bad deal!
After the Monday PR adventures, we were all set for an early morning Tuesday to drive to Springfield and pick up chicks. But, it wasn’t to happen. Delays in shipping from Texas meant that it would be another day before the chicks arrived.
Not to worry… a chick eats up the yolk just before hatch, and this provides it the nutrition to survive about 3 days with nothing more. Think about a Mama hen sitting on a clutch of eggs that will not all hatch on exactly the same day. God designed them to be just fine sitting right under Mama (or in a box at the post office!) for a few days.
Wednesday morning, the chicks were definitely in!
When we got them home, the first task was to get them situated and show them where the water was.
Here are all the girls (24 of them!) happily chirping in their new home.
We had to go back out for fiddle lesson after getting everyone situated, and sadly one of the chicks passed while we are gone. While it is possible that she was just weak, we also suspect that she got wet under the drinker and cold – a bad combo for new chicks. As a result, we made some quick changes to the brooder: switch to regular drinker and added a heat lamp. Since our garage is mostly underground, it stays fairly cool. We found that the Ecoglow was not enough to give them the warmth they needed.
Have you ever heard about chicken math? It alludes to how you should always plan for more chickens than you think you’re going to have. Why? Because you will inevitably want more! Chatting with my farmer friend, Elaine, I learned she wanted to add some non-Black Star chicks to her mix and was looking for some Auracanas (add some color to the egg laying — they lay green/blue eggs). Well, sure, I would get a few if I didn’t have to get 25 (which is the minimum you can order due to the fact they need to stay warm in shipping). So, Ryan and I got 3 little chicks of our own to raise alongside Jackson’s. Chick count: 26!
Remember how I told you it was too cold in the basement without an additional heat lamp? Here’s a pic of all the chicks happily moving about with the new, toasty setup.
We got up Sunday morning so that the boys and I could go participate in a bike race. Just before we left, we lost power! Jackson had the presence of mind to realize that this meant no power to the heat sources and cold chicks!! Here is a pic of what they looked like when we went downstairs:
Jerry scrambled (complete with a migraine!) to get our generator backup up and running. Before too long, there was heat restored and everyone happily pecking around. Definitely reminded us how important power is when you are brooding chicks without a Mama hen to do the warming! Here’s hoping we can make it through the next few weeks of rainy season without any more hiccups!
I got tired or picking pine shavings and poop out of the drinker, so I raised it up on a wood block. They can still reach the water, and they don’t scratch the pine shavings into it.
With the new wing feathers, the girls were starting to explore the possibility of roosting on the walls of the brooder. This meant that just a hop down would mean escaping the safety of the brooder. Not good.
It was time to move them to their bigger digs. This is the bottom of the camper coop we used outside when we got our older chicks last Fall.
It won’t be long before it goes back out there with these gals, but for now we just have it set up in the basement. It will be interesting to see what happens when we put the top back on it outside since Atlas has taken to making it his “king of the mountain” spot!
Make sure to check out my last post with a video of a more “rambunctious” Atlas on the camper top!
One final video to close out the first 2 weeks of chick life. They are definitely cute!
