Quick chicken update

Just a short post to get us through until I can put together a proper one...

The chicks are now officially chickens.  Many have lost all of their fuzz, and a few just need back feathers.  Tuesday is weigh-in day - I put the scale on the floor, watch until a chicken climbs on, and record the weight.  After I get 5 weights (with caveats: the same weight will not be recorded twice, and the weight of the biggest and the smallest birds will not be recorded) I average them.  Last night, at the age of 6 weeks, our average weight is 18.14 oz - just over a pound.  Awesome :)  Then, out of curiosity, I tried to weigh the biggest looking birds I could - the largest cockerel is 23.8 oz, and the largest pullet is 23.9 oz.  That's a solid pound and a half each!

I've been mulling over which ones to keep - Hal and Cathy (the great hospitality, advise, raspberry and other assorted plant providers) would like a rooster and three or four hens, and we are thinking of keeping a few to regenerate a small meat flock when desired.  I'm thinking of keeping the biggest chickens (tall people usually have tall children, so logically, plump chickens should hatch more plump chickens), and breaking any ties by factoring in attitude as I don't want angry, unsocial birds.  Even now, some birds are friendlier than others, although I try to interact with most of them when I pop in every day.

And they're getting friendly with Zim:

Most of the time both Zim and the chickens are moving - these are the best three pictures I've gotten in the last two weeks.  The bottom two are from last night.

And then there were 26

We lost Chirpy last night. Everything was status quo last night before bed; still sleepy, but I reminded him where his food was and he ate with enthusiasm. Went I went out earlier today, he had died. We buried him under the pine tree that gave our farm its name; this was both practical (we don't want to attract predators) and sappy (I wanted something I could remember him by).

I'm a little rattled, but we knew there was a strong possibility that Chirpy wouldn't make it. We did what we could, between the semi-isolation unit and the medicated water. But, as you know, Chirpy was a weak chick from the start (with his umbilical problems). Due to his required extra care, I kinda got a bit attached to the little guy; I knew it would be hard to slaughter him (plus with the need for medicated water, he was no longer anywhere near organic, and I had concerns about eating him), but I knew that I didn't want him to be part of a small reproducing flock (if we decide to take that route) because he'd pass on his problem-prone genes. In a way, I'm glad we didn't have to make that decision. But I also already miss the little fluffball.  He was the tamest of the chicks, by far.

Luckily, the other chicks continue to thrive.  I am considering trimming their flight feathers, as they are learning to run and launch themselves across the brooder.  One of these days, we'll go in to the barn and we'll have one (or four) outside of the brooder completely.  Yikes!  They're hilarious to watch; as they get bigger, they have started to challenge us as well, puffing up their chests and pecking at our fingers.  Little rascals.

In other news, I got a preemptive tetanus shot yesterday afternoon, and today I feel like I've been hit by a truck.  I'm achy, I'm lethargic, and I just want to sleep (but I can't because my back and shoulders and neck start to ache if I lay down for too long).  I'm really hoping I feel better tomorrow; I still need to get the chicken run/tractor built.  Today, I managed to: fix the hose, cutting out the part that Jordan ran over with the lawn tractor ("I thought I could make it... I guess not") and putting in hose ends; weed a bit of the garden (still only one carrot, and four cabbages.  Sigh.); add another two-way split to the hose connection at the house, so we can now run three hoses; make bread (in the breadmaker; cheating, maybe, but it's better and cheaper than store-bought bread); and cook supper (I know!  I'm shocked too!  But it was a one-pot meal that took less than 45 minutes from start to finish).

And now, I think I'm going to put the chicks to bed, and head to bed myself.  I'm wiped out, even after a great sleep on Thursday night.

Our 'special needs' chick is still very special... and other random bits.

So, for a fun change of pace, let's move through this post chronologically instead of by storyline like usual.

We had another great weekend.  Friday was town day, Saturday..... I don't even remember Saturday, but I'm sure we got something done.  Sunday was beautiful.  I attempted to hook up the water in the longhouse, and ended up lighting the inside of the wall on fire, so..... it can wait for another weekend, I'll try again on Saturday.  (Luckily, it was more "hot embers" than "raging inferno" so I was able to drill a hole in the wall and spray down the inside with a squirt bottle, until I couldn't feel any more heat.  Sheesh, that was exciting.)

Every morning and night, I check on the chicks - the morning is a quick "hello!" and a heat lamp adjustment, and I feed them and water them at night.  Sunday night, I was impressed by how feathered our chicks are getting:

12 days old.  Reminder: you can click any of the pictures to make them bigger.

And they're starting to sprout combs!!!!

Still 12 days old

Monday morning, I noticed how long the grass in the barnyard is when I lost Zim....

Zim.....?  He's that black spot in the center - this was taken from about his eye level.

We also found out that Diamond got adopted!  She's ridiculously camera shy...

No, Diamond, don't run away, having your picture taken doesn't hurt...

The tree swallow chicks hatched last week, and on Monday they were extra enthusiastic about getting some food...

"Mom?  Mom!  what's for lunch?"

It's been very warm in the house in the evenings lately, as it's been above 24 during the day, so by about 6 pm it's at least 25 in the house.  So, I decided to hang some blackout curtains in the office, as that's our only south facing window.  I had the curtains down because I had brought home my aloes from work to repot.  So, 'hanging curtains' started at about 9:30 am and went like this:  "Hey, it's been warm in here, I wonder if it will be any cooler if I hang curtains.  Well, in order to hang the curtains, I should get those aloes out of there.  If I'm fiddling with them, I may as well repot them - that's why they're here in the first place."  *Wanders into the greenhouse to look for leftover potting soil I had mixed up the last time I repotted the aloes.*  "Sheesh, I can't find a thing in here - I know I had some mixed soil left over.  It's so hard to move around in here with this huge box in the way... and these pots of used soil are irritating, I'm always stepping around them... and I'm lucky Zim hasn't stepped on the seed-starter trays and broken them in his crazed frenzy to chase a sparrow that got in here this morning..." *Starts moving things around... eventually empties all the junk out of the greenhouse; empties the old soil into buckets to be broken up, supplemented with compost, and reused; organizes and neatly stacks the empty pots, buckets, and seed starter units; locates the various batches of mixed soil and soil supplements like peat moss, perlite and vermiculite, and stows them together in a corner; and gets all the plants lined up along the west wall.* "Now that everything is organized, it sure would be nice if I could get the auto-waterer and soaker hose set up.  I bet that piece of soaker hose would be the perfect length, but the other hose hooked up to the water system has a leak.  I know we just picked up new hose ends..." *Finds the hose ends and fixes both soaker hose lengths, since I bought a brand new one last year and promptly cut it in half, and then fixes the supply hose as well, which required using the hair dryer to heat up the hose.  Digs out the auto-waterer, spends 10 minutes trying to set it up, 20 minutes looking for the manual in vain, and another 15 minutes to finally sort it out.  Digs a large empty tin can out of the recycling, and uses a can opener, tin snips, duct tape and scissors to get the can around the wire strung in the greenhouse so the hose can be hooked over it without kinking.  Hooks up the hose, makes sure nothing leaks - success!  Wanders into the house for a drink.* "Hi Hon, what about lunch?  It's 2... I'm hungry, are you hungry?  There's not really anything to cook, and it's too hot to cook... I feel like pizza... want to order pizza?" *Spends 20 minutes deciding what to order from a local restaurant, only to discover they're closed...  Spends 15 minutes deciding what to order from another pizza joint, calls to ensure they're open, helps Hubby put everything outside away, calls to order the pizza, drives in to town, picks up pizza, drives home, and eats.*  "Okay, what was I doing?  Oh yeah, the curtains..." *Gets curtains out of longhouse, hangs them on the line to dry out a bit, grabs piece of plastic vapour barrier from the barn, mixes more soil for the aloes, and repots 2 aloes, puts two new aloe babies into fresh pots, and repots a columbine and the mock orange.*  "Yay!  It's now 6:30 and the plants are finally repotted!!!"  *Notices she is absolutely filthy from playing with/in/around dirt in the greenhouse all day and has a shower, which really hurts the sunburn she got while in the greenhouse.*  "Oh yeah, the curtains...."  *Picks curtains up off lawn and hangs them in the office window.*

So there you have it.  It took me more than 10 hours to hang some curtains.  But, the greenhouse looks great:

Plants, with soaker hose

Tidy!!!!

So, when I finally made it out to the chickens, it was 8:30.  The chicks are fast now, so when I step in to their brooder, they all run for the far corner.  Monday night, when I stepped in, one chick didn't run.  I picked him up, and noticed it was Chirpy.  "Look, Chirpy's tired" I said as he fell asleep in my hand.  Jordan said "No, he's not feeling well."  His crop was full of water - it was like a water balloon in his throat.  Just as Jordan said "Chickens can't puke," Chirpy vomited water all over his hand because we were poking at his crop.  I apologized to the poor chick:"Oops, sorry bud, I didn't expect that to happen, how's about I stop poking at you and give you a cuddle instead?"  Turns out Jordan is right, we suspect that the Chirpster has coccidiosis, an overgrowth of a fecal protozoa in his digestive system that can be toxic.  When I put the chicks on shavings on Thursday, they immediately went nuts, digging and kicking the shavings around... right in to the waterers.  I continually picked the shavings out, and washed or rinsed the waterers each night, but our special chick got sick anyway.

So I was back out there at 10 pm, giving the waterers a full wash and refilling them with fresh water.  It was near midnight by the time I got to bed, and I had to work the next day.

Jordan was able to track down some medicine for him on Tuesday, but as I don't want the rest of the chicks to be medicated, and Chirpy can only have the medicated water, that means Chirpy is in lockdown.  I found a small rabbit pen in the longhouse, and was able to make it work.  Chirpy has his own food and medicated water, and this way he is still sort of with his siblings, and I don't have to heat and maintain another full brooder.  He's still not happy about it though - he spends a good bit of his time slowly walking the edge of his prison cell, chirping to the other chicks.  Poor guy.

You can see him in the top corner, under the heat lamp and near the other chicks.

He's still slow, and sleepy.  Tonight when I checked on them after work, he fell asleep in my hand again...  But his crop has been consistently empty since Monday night, and he's eaten a bit of food.  He's also been protesting a bit when I pick him up, which is a nice change from Monday.

Sick, sick, sick Chirpy... I can relate, when I feel terrible all I want to do is sleep too.

And just as I got out there tonight (okay, I admit, the pictures above and below are out of chronological order...) there was a little chick who had burrowed a nice little bed into the shavings.  He was still rolling around and fluffing the shavings around him when I quietly crept up to the brooder and snapped this picture from over the edge, without looking so I wouldn't scare him off.

Chicken camouflage

Of course, the three chicks that had been keeping this guy company when I first came in had all run off, so I was worried that this little one was sick too.... but luckily, he's fine, just reluctant to give up his spot.

They continue to gain wait and feather out nicely.  Check out this handsome fellow:

15 days

And they get bigger by the day.  I decided on Saturday that I should probably track their weight.  So I grabbed my digital scale and a basket, zeroed the scale to account for the weigh of the basket, and tucked in 5 chicks, weighing them all at once.  I made sure not to grab the biggest chick, or the smallest one (who is Chirpy).  I then averaged the weights... 3.66 oz each at 11 days old.  Today, at 15 days, they're 4.76 oz each.  That's 1.1 oz in 4 days... pretty good, guys!!

So there you have it, now you are completely up to date.  And it's now 9 pm, and after a straight week of late nights, I'm going to bed.  G'night, folks.