Empty Nesters

Phew!  After a lot of hard work and long weekends, we finished the coop.  By "we" I mean, mostly, my husband with me doing the cheering.  The incentive for him was great.  The chicks were living in our tv/family room/dining room and they were making a mess and starting to make the place smell like a barn.  

The Garden Coop

 We did our best to keep friends and family at bay so they wouldn't think we had gone completely crazy - turning our house to a barn.  I'm not the neatest little housewife in the world, but the chicks were clearly not meant to be living inside.

left to right Bismo, Jessican and Dan

 According to their instruction manual* the chicks should be moved into their coop at 6 weeks.  Ours are 5 weeks.  That will have to be good enough.  One more week and my kids will call in a social worker and show them the farm animals living at their feet.  Oh, and my mother-in-law will be coming over tomorrow for brunch.

Sparkle, Bismo, (Jessica hidden), Dan

 The chicks are low maintenance.  I check on their water and food once a day - usually fine.  Every other day or even every third day, I give them clean water and every fourth - food.  I bought larger feeders and hung them.  TIP:  When your chicks are about 1.5 weeks old, you will notice that they kick out all of their feed within a few hours.  Get some wire and jerry-rig some kind of hanging device.  Hang the food and water at about chest height (the higher the better).  This will make it much more difficult for them to kick up shavings into the water and kick out the food from their feeder.

Chicken ladder

 We carried the chicks outside - each chick with their respective owner.  They went right into the henhouse.  After about 10 minutes, I couldn't wait any longer.  They would need a 'mother hen' to show them how to use the chicken ladder.

Dan is thinking about it.

 Dan, of course, was the first to take a look, but too cautious to try it.

Inspector Dan and Co. BTW - that is the egg collecting door

 Instead, Dan led the flock around the little house and inspected every screw, nail and hole for food and safety, I'm sure.

Chicks and their feeders (will be hung)

 I finally gave in and one by one, placed them on the ladder about half way down to see if they would scramble up.  They did not.  They froze where they were and then flew to the ground.  Those feeders you see, were hanging in the dog kennel brooder and will have to be hung ASAP.  The only spot so far is under the ladder and I can already predict that they will be kicking their aspen bedding out the floor hole and into their food/water.  We'll deal with that later.

View of inside hen house - no perch yet.

There is the inside - We will put a heat lamp in the upper corner away from the door until the temperature at night is above 55 F.  I don't know what the science is behind the temperature.  There are so many different opinions about when to put chicks outside and how warm it has to be, etc. etc.  I decided to be safe, I'd hang the lamp inside and turn it on at night.  When we would check on them, they were usually sleeping away from the lamp which meant it was a bit too warm, so we raised it each night until they seemed comfortable.

I'm also reading that heat lamps cause a lot of coop fires, so in the fall, I may splurge and buy a ceramic heating panel.  Another concern is that mice can chew through the extension chords and cause fires that way as well.  I guess we will figure that all out this fall.

Sigh.  I'm pooped.  Time for a glass of wine and I'll lift my glass and toast all of my long-time (and new) bloggy friends - Happy Mothers day to you or to your mother and your grandmother etc. etc.

*instruction manual - hours and hours and hours on the internet

PS.  My next post will be about coop design and choice.  There are a lot of options out there, but trust me on this - I researched for four years.  I will tell you everything I know so far and I'll add on as we go and learn.  Ta!!