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| See the 8x8 sandbox behind Chris in the run? |
Farmer Chris sure has been working hard on the
chicken coop for our girls. Our five Black Stars hens hatched on April 3, we feel pretty sure that Big Bird, our Red Ranger is older by at least a week. We picked up our birds on April 8 and didn't even have a coop yet! The baby chicks stayed in a brooder box with a heat light in an outbuilding for a couple weeks.
The little coop ordered from California arrived and was set up around April 17. The girls loved playing in their new home, but it was still a tad chilly for baby chicks at night so, in the evenings, we'd gather up the chickens and carry them back to the
brooder box until morning. Eventually, the birds feathered up and the heat turned up outside and the little sweet birds moved out of the brooder box on May 1.
Construction on the big chicken coop and run began in May. The 16-foot by 8-foot run or play yard is completed. We placed the small coop inside, built a nice big roost, hung their food, and viola! The
hens moved into the big house a few weeks ago. They love it and definitely needed the space - these birds grow so fast that by now the little coop would likely comfortably hold only two hens. They even have their very own sandbox! You should see the screen door Chris built too - amazing!
The coop construction is underway to give them chicks secure housing in which to sleep, hide out from the sun, and to lay eggs. It is four-feet by eight-feet and same as the run, tall enough for people to walk in for cleaning. The coop has a cute little
barn door
from the run for the birds and a nice big, screened window for ventilation and so the chickens can look out into their run. They are such curious little creatures! The coop also will have plenty of roosting space and four
nesting boxes off the back with a hinged lid for easy egg collecting.
The chickens are nearly 15 weeks now (with Big Bird being at least one week older) so the egg watch begins this weekend.
Egg laying has been known to start with the lighter weight Black Stars as early as 15 or 16 weeks. Based on my research, average egg laying time starts around 18 or 20 weeks, whereas larger framed birds like my Big Bird may not start until 22 or 24 weeks. I'm encouraging them, but don't expect any eggs until August.
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| Farming Ain't Easy |
Our girls are so beautiful! I've never been in love with a chicken before, but they are so much fun! They love to hear singing and will gather around at your feet (you'll feel like Snow White, I swear) and they just look at you like you're the best thing on earth! And to them, I probably am!! The chicken antics are fun to watch and we like to feed them green muscadines that have fallen off the vine. The crazy little chicks will chase each other around trying to steal one another's grapes! They love to eat my kitchen veggie scraps - zucchini, squash, and cucumbers chopped up into bird bite size pieces, tomatoes, lettuce, marigold petals, dill stems, even corn on the cob! And they love worms and bugs, beware to any flying bug that enters the run, those birds will chase you down!
"Regard it just as desirable to build a chicken house as it is to build a cathedral."
-Frank Lloyd Wright
Check out our
Chickens! photo album on Facebook to see pics of chicks. :)
More
Chicken Cottage pics here!
Want to read more about what's going on around the farm? Here's a few other posts you might wanna check out:
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