Cute Spring Happenings

Hi all! I just wanted to share a few snapshots of some cute little spring happenings here at Edgington Farm.

Nothing says spring like daffodils blooming.

Our 8 wounded and picked birds were doing well enough that I decided to combine all of our new chicks (except the still tiny little bantams) in our handy brooder box. 

We've been letting Bacon bunk in with our older chicken flock, and judging by this picture, everyone is adjusting well. This was bedtime, and everyone seems comfy and cozy!

These were some of our Easter colored eggs. We had lots of fun doing them.

Toby had a nice upsetting faceplant in a puddle. 

These little bantam chicks are like feathery little ping pong balls. They love being held too. So cute!

Thanks for reading!

Chicken Update-2 weeks old 2013

Hi all! I just thought I'd give a quick chicken update since their 2 weeks old.  My once tiny little chicks have just shot up! The meat chickens probably weigh at least a pound already! They are going through the uglies. :)

Right now the chicks are in the process of molting which means they are losing their cute fluffy baby feathers and growing beautiful adult feathers.  Now,  these states are lovely in full feathers,  but the molting stage? Not so much. They look like awkward teenagers! They are really learning to fly now too, so we'll have to cover their brooder.

Mitch spotted this little rebel roosting on the edge of the brooder! Those little Wyandottes can really fly. I just knew they would be the first to venture out! 

Just for reference, their brooder is about 2 feet tall. 

Here's another little bird roosting on the water bucket. Tsk tsk. We'll have to hang these feeders and waterer's. They are pooping in them and roosting. That's no good!

In addition to their awkward molting, they eat like little piggies! The big meat chickens often sleep on or near the feeder. It amazes me how much these guys can put away! We went through a 20 lb bag of food in a little over a week!!

Here are the 2 types of meaties we have side by side. The white one is a jumbo cornish x rock and the red one is a red ranger. 

So, here are some countdowns to more entertaining chicken updates:
* 2 weeks-the chickens will be allowed to have treats and it will be highly entertaining
* 3 weeks-we are moving the chickens to their new coop and they will get to range in the grass
* 5-6 weeks-we are processing the 4 cornish x rocks
* 10 weeks- we are processing the 8 red ranger broilers
* 18-20 weeks-we can begin to expect eggs and we will process the 7 or so free "packing peanut" male chickens we got to keep our order of chicks warm.

Yay! Come back soon to learn the gist of potting up and leggy plants!

Thanks for reading!

New Chicken Digs

Hi all. We finally built the chickens their new bigger (and might I add badder) chicken brooder. For those of you who don't know chicken lingo,  a brooder is just a fancy name to call a heated box/container for baby and young chicks.

We started out with a modified large dog crate with one heated light. We kept this in our spare room since we couldn't get our detached garage warm enough for the chicks.  While good in theory,  this was not so good in practice.  Our chicks would escape and run around the brooder because they couldn't figure out how to get back in.  (While chickens are neat and very useful animals,  I'm not sure they're known for their intelligence.) They also began to grow very quickly. (Baby animals tend to do that, don't they?) Their rapid growth meant that my 32 one week-old chickens were taking up lots more space. Crowding in the chicken world leads to pecking and injuries, illness, and filth. I also had a problem keeping up with food and water since only small containers could fit in there comfortably.

So anyhow, the new brooder is built.  It's 4x8x2 with 2 heat lamps. We have a little enclosure on one end and a big open area on the other.  The chicks are so happy now!

Sorry about the poor video quality, but I thought I would share because it was so cute!