Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Day 63

The chicks were nine weeks old yesterday.

I took this picture after the chicks had gone to bed.  This is how they sleep.  All up on the roost.  See how big Murphy has gotten?  His crow is getting pretty loud too.  I’m not sure how much longer he can stay with us.  Notice that poor Miss Prissy’s eyes are completely covered by her feathers.  We may have to trim those.  She sometimes runs into things…

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Day 61

Today the chicks had some small visitors!  Most of them are calm and will hold still while being petted.

Caitlin is petting the BR (rooster?)

We still don’t know for sure if the suspected Barred Rock rooster is actually a rooster, but Murphy definitely is… On Thursday morning he started crowing.  It’s a sad little crow, but it’s a crow.  It’s no where near loud enough to wake anyone up right now, but he’s practicing and will certainly get better at it before long.

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Friday, April 25, 2008

Day 58

Ok, so the pullet house was moved across the yard the other day, but we couldn’t get it into the garden because we couldn’t drive the truck into the garden.  So it sat in the yard until today.  Apparently, we hadn’t rednecked it up enough, so we brought in a four wheeler to finish the job.

First the house was pushed by the 4-wheeler

Then the house was pulled by the 4-wheeler

We thank Tom for lending his 4-wheeler services!  I’m not sure how else we would have gotten the house in place.

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

Day 57

We’ve had the chicks for eight weeks now.  I’d like to know how much they weigh, but I doubt that we’ll be able to get them to stay on the scale long enough to read it.  Jingles still appears to be the biggest and Miss Prissy is definitely the smallest.

I gave them some cantaloupe and grapes today.  They ate all the grapes first, so I guess they like them better.  Or maybe cantaloupe was just new and they were suspicious of it.

Here is Jingles looking for a good piece

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Day 56

The chickens love corn!  I let them pick at this cob after Josh finished with it.  They couldn’t get enough of it.  Next time I’ll have to buy them their own ear of corn.

They seem to be enjoying staying in their coop over night.  We’ve had a few thunderstorms over the past few nights.  I’m sure they were scared at first.  Yesterday it rained while they were out in the garden.  They didn’t seem to mind it.

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Day 55

The chicks are eight weeks old today.  How time flies!

We decided to move the pullet house today.  It was in the back of our yard and we decided to move it to the garden by the house that is already fenced in.

There’s the house waaay back in the corner of the yard

Here’s the house being pulled by the truck (we put little wheels on it!)

I think pulling a chicken house behind your pick-up makes you an official redneck….

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Day 53

The chickens are really enjoying the nice weather.  They have been getting to spend the whole day in the garden for the past few days.  They have also spent the last two nights outside in their house.  I’m glad to finally get them out of my bathroom.  I’m sure they are glad to get out of the brooders.

The three Barred Rocks are enjoying the weather as well as standing on Josh

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Day 52

Josh finally named the two Australorps.  The one on my knees is Jingles and the one on the ground is Maddison.

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Friday, April 18, 2008

Day 51

We think Murphy might be a rooster too…  The hatcheries are supposed to be 90-95% accurate at sexing the chicks so we didn’t anticipate one out of six to be incorrectly sexed.*  Since she (or he) has developed those wattles before any of the others we became suspicious.  She’s also a lot bigger than Miss Prissy, the other Polish.  She’s also very pushy and more daring than the other chicks- rooster traits.  But we’ll have to wait and see.  I’ll be very upset if she’s a he since Murphy is my favorite chick.  She’s very funny and quirky and reminds me of Ozzy.

*The Barred Rock that we think is a rooster was an extra chick added to our order for warmth in transit.  When they add an extra it can be a rooster.  Since you are not paying for it, you get what you get…

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Day 50

We’ve had the chicks for seven weeks now!  They are having a nice time in their coop (the pullet house).  The weather should turn nice enough tomorrow to start letting them stay out overnight. 

The three Barred Rocks posing for a picture

Little Jerry Seinfeld, Larry, and suspected rooster

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