Chicks Day 5

Project - Spring Chicken is officially on Day 5 of the video blogging project. I missed Sunday as we were out all day at the May Day Parade, and yesterday I discovered I had no battery juice left to take video with! >:( I do plan to load a video for today. They are sleeping right now, I think it's the first time they've been quiet since they got here.

Some of the birds are developing a little faster than others. A few have little baby wing feathers. The Marans are discovering they have strong powerful legs and they can run REALLY fast with them, even sometimes running right over the littler chickens. The little red Ameracauna I loved so much has a slight cross beak - a genetic problem from bad breeding. If if turns out to be a rooster, his name is "soup", if it's a hen, I'll wait to see what color egg she lays before deciding what to do with her.

Incidentally, I was sold the wrong bag of feed at the feed store. I have large crumbles and what I needed for small chicks was more of a powder (small grains) type feed. Most feeds stores will not take returns, and feed can sometimes spoil before chicks are old enough to eat adult sized crumbles depending on your storage methods and humidity. I hate to see feed go to waste, particularly when its becoming so expensive. The bag of feed is currently being stored in my kitchen, (it's extra convenient to feed the chicks if they are right next to each other). Having been sold the wrong feed before (a recurring problem with my local store) I know from experience that you can toss it in a food processor to break it down. I don't need so much at a time just yet so I'm running about 1/3 of a cup per feeding through my mortar and pestle.

Chicks Day 2

So I counted the little boogers today while transferring them to the bigger bin and I actually have 23 chicks! YAY me!

I transferred them into a large plastic tote bin so they could have more room to eat and I could fit waterers in on the floor. The heat lamp sits a little too high since the sides of this tote are taller, and I suppose plastic does not insulate as well as cardboard does. They cooled off and started bunching up again after the feeding frenzy was over, so back into the little box they went.

Chicks Day 1

Here is last nights video of my new chicks. I apologize for not getting this posted last night, as promised. After returning home I discovered we were having some online difficulties - no, not the technical kind. Do I grrr? Do I sigh? Do I care? Bleh.

Anyway, I have 13 Cuckoo Marans (the "s" is silent) and 8 Ameraucana chicks. Some of them, if you look really closely still have their egg tooth. An egg tooth is a little tooth like bump on the tip of their beak that they use to break out of their shell when hatching. This tooth will dry and fall off in a day or two.

The only thing I didn't mention in the video that I thought about afterwards as I adjusted the heat lamp, was the heat lamp! I am using a 60 watt bulb in a standard clip on heat lamp fixture. Heat is very import to new chicks. In the video notice how they are all clumped together, the heat lamp is too high and they aren't warm enough. After the video I clipped the lamp to the side of the box and draped a towel over it to keep the heat in, leaving about a 2 inch gap along one side for ventilation. After awhile I checked in on them and felt the sides of the box to make sure I wasn't about to start a house fire. The insides were cool to the touch and the chicks had spread out nicely indicating they were very comfortable.

Enjoy the video. Day 2 will be posted shortly. :)