As I indicated in my previous post, I have had a couple of set backs and slow downs. However, I intend to continue my urban chicken experiment. I will be expanding my chicken coop to accommodate more chickens. Additionally, I will be starting with some day old chicks from a mail order hatchery.
I am planning this out a little bit more than my initial chick acquisition. With the day old chicks, I have to have everything in order and ready to go before they arrive.
For the first eight weeks, the chicks will live in my garage. Their home will be a hard plastic, children's swimming pool (I purchased one for $14.85 plus tax). I also got some feeders and waterers, as well as a stand for the brooder light.
I am in the process of setting up everything, and I have placed my chick order. I purchased five Barred Rocks and five Rhode Island Reds.
In regards to egg production, my Barred Rock has laid five eggs in the past seven days. I am still waiting on the Americana to start laying, but I am extremely happy to finally have fresh eggs.
After several months of feeding and watering and tending to my girls, I finally have my first egg. I have to admit, I was getting a little discouraged. I knew eventually I would start getting eggs, but I was expecting them earlier. None the less, I am extremely happy that I am starting to get eggs. Tomorrow morning's breakfast... toast and a fresh, urban chicken egg over easy!
It has been some time since my last post, and a few things have and have not happened.
First, I had a little (or big set back depending on how you look at it) in my urban chicken experiment. Two of my four chickens contracted Merricks disease for which there is no cure. As such, I had to put them down because they could not move to eat or drink. It was not fun at all, but it is part of raising chickens.
The remaining two chickens seem to be doing okay. They have no signs of Merricks, and they are continuing to grow.
Second, I still don't have any eggs. I am wondering if my pullets were much younger than I originally thought (was told). This is very frustrating and disappointing because the whole idea behind raising chickens in my backyard was for fresh eggs. I have found the Barred Rock in the nesting boxes recently, so I am hopeful she will be laying soon.
Like all chickens, my chickens are treat obsessed. Every time I approach the coop, the girls start running back and forth at the edge of the coop waiting for a treat. I guess I have developed this behavior because usually when I check on my chickens, I bring them something from the kitchen. They love treats. One of their favorites is strawberries. In the following video, I hand feed my chicks, and you can see how they go crazy over treats.
Well, it has been some time since my last post. There has not been much to report. The chickens are growing, but they have not yet started laying. The initial estimate was they would start producing around May 25th. So, it is one week later than expected at this point. However, I think it may still be a few weeks before I see my first egg, as the girls are still a little on the small side (I think they may have been younger than 14 weeks when I got them). Hopefully it won't be to much longer; I am really looking forward to those fresh eggs.
Just a quick post about a great chicken resource. I found this website when I started researching how to raise chickens. It is www.backyardchickens.com. This is a fun website with lots of great information about chickens. The most interesting aspect of www.backyardchickens.com is the people.
People who raise chickens are very passionate about their chickens, and there are a lot of people who raise chickens. Now that I have my own chickens, I understand why. It has only been three weeks, but it has been a very rewarding experience. I enjoy just watching my chickens; they are very interesting creatures.
Most people that I have told about my chickens think I am joking around, and they laugh when they first see one of my chicken videos, which are kind of silly. However, the videos are meant to be fun. After the initial response, everyone thinks it's pretty cool, and they ask me on a regular basis "How are your chickens doing?".
Well, I have had my chickens for just over two weeks, and they are doing well. They are growing and seem bigger every day.
This weekend I made a couple of enhancements to the chicken coop. The first change was to the watering system for the chickens. I was using a two gallon galvanized double wall waterer. This waterer did the job, but my hens kept scratching dirt and grass into their water. I was having to clean it out twice a day to keep their water clean. I tried to elevate the container, but within a short time it was always full of grass and dirt. So, I installed a gravity feed system that uses nipples to deliver the water, and the girls seem to like it.
The second modification was to their feeder. I installed their feeder under the hen house to make sure the feed stays dry in the event of rain, and it has worked quite well. However, to refill the feeder required going into the coop. To avoid stepping into poop, I wanted a way to refilled the feeder without going into the coop. Using some PVC pipe, I was able to come up with a way to refill their feeder much more conveniently.
Check out the video which shows these enhancement.
