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| Oh no! Not again! |
All right. This has to stop. I'm taking a twelve step pledge to not buy any more chickens, after today. At least for this year. Or until the coop and pens are ready.
I couldn't help it. There I was, in the farm store, stocking up on feed because the existing flock has already consumed most of a 50 pound bag of chick starter. And, of course, I just *had* to walk down the aisle where the baby chicks are kept. And, of course, they just *had* to have the Golden Laced Wyandotte pullets in stock, those I had wanted in the beginning. Of course!
I bit. Four more birds came home this afternoon.
It's ok, because last night the population pressure in the box had become just too great to leave the birds alone. So, I pulled up a third box between the existing chicken box and the turkey box, put the hardware cloth over it, set a big chicken waterer in it, and stole the little feed trough from the turkeys to give to the chickens. Then I shuttled the 8 biggest birds, the 4 Cinnamon Queens, the 3 California Whites, and the bird I believe to be a Black Australorp, into the new box. They seem quite happy in their new home, and it sure relieved the pressure in the "small" box. In fact, they seemed kind of overwhelmed by the space, and the 4 new birds are so tiny they hardly make any difference. What is most clear is how much the existing birds have grown. The new birds, only a week younger than the other most recent purchases, seem very tiny in comparison.
The turkeys don't mind the loss of their feed trough. I had noticed their knobby heads were getting too big to go in the little holes anyway, and was going to have to remove the tops of the feeders to leave just an open trough. So, I placed an old plastic food container in their cage with the food in it. They seem to prefer that. Also, the turkeys are supposed to have the heat gradually decreased on them up to the time you put them outdoors. I presumed this is true for the bigger chickens as well, so I positioned the heat lamp so it shines half and half. The temperature in the turkey box is about 6 to 10 degrees less than previously, and everyone still seems happy. So, things are going to be ok for another couple weeks.
But this can't go on forever. I have a limit to how much I can expand my operation in the living room.
For one thing, they are starting to smell. It's not quite as bad as walking into a chicken coop, but it won't be long before that happens. Also, as fast as these birds are growing, they're each going to need their own individual box before long. It's simply astonishing how fast they grow. The first and second batch of purchases are no longer fuzzy little chicks, but birds in full, or nearly full, feather. They have a lot of growing to do to reach their mature weight of 8 pounds, but they are clearly chickens now, and not chicks.
After getting everyone settled in this evening, and restocking the water and feed, my friend Sasha brought her kids, Courtney and Aiden, out to see the chickens. Aiden was very brave and held one of the new little birds in his hand. He named it Dairy. That seems appropriate since it's a little pullet, and you find eggs in the dairy case. Courtney wasn't so sure. She looked the birds over closely, but she didn't think she wanted to hold one. She picked another of the little Golden Laced Wyandotte birds, one with a little redder head than Aiden's, and named it Henry. I'm sure Henry will lay just as nice eggs and Dairy, despite some possible gender confusion.
I told the kids the little hen turkey is named Jenny-O, and pointed out Homer to them. We also decided to name the little gray Silver Tipped Wyandotte, the one I think might actually be a Blue Tipped Wyandotte, Tyson. Since Tyson is a pullet, she'll have a long egg laying life. Hopefully. By picking pullets the kids won't have to deal with having Tyson noodle soup, or Henry ala King, or Dairy stir fry anytime soon. I did say to them that you raise the chickens to eat them, knowing full well that you have to tell kids that right away or else they get false hopes. That was one of the big lessons growing up on the farm.
The other one was not to name things you would eat. Obviously, I've violated that rule!
Work on the coop continues. My friend, Steve, drew up a plan for how to install the boxes in the shed. He and I plan to work on those Wednesday after work. I need to get measurements made so we can put the boxes together and install them. I have a load of one inch cedar planks in the back of the pickup that we'll probably use for this task. If there's not enough, we'll round some others up.
We have to get the painting finished so we can put the fence up. Today would have been a good day, and probably we should have taken advantage of that. It sounds as though rain is in the forecast for the next couple days. I guess we'll take it as it comes.
That's the report from the chicken ranch.
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Posted by Bearville on 2009-05-11 21:07:11 | Rating: | Views: 33
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