Raising Chicks, or "It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much...

...and live with her too little."
~Oscar Wilde

I recently found this quote and thought it an apt title for my first real post, which will be regarding the subject of raising chickens.

All my life, I have been aware of the presence of this creature, the chicken.

I have eaten chicken meat from all parts of the bird, prepared in all different ways. I have enjoyed eggs as a delicious source of energy in my breakfasts, and cracked countless into baked goods as an efficient binding agent.

I have even had a general knowledge of the birds anatomy and behaviors. They have wings, feathers, beaks. They spend their days pecking in the dirt. Roosters crow, hens lay eggs...not exactly an in depth understanding of the animal, but in our modern society where the rich bounties of this fabulous fowl are effortlessly procured in neat packages from a clean, hygienic, and most of all convenient local market, one need not know much more than these simple facts.

As Trystan and I started thinking more and more about buying only animal products which came from animals treated humanely, we began buying the Free Range/Organic eggs at the market. We immediately noticed a difference in the eggs quality and flavor. Then we started buying eggs from a local farmer. These eggs were even more luxurious and tasty.

Then the little idea worm started to burrow its way into our consciousness - we wanted to start raising our own chickens so that we could have such high caliber eggs practically delivered to our home every single day for (hopefully) less than we are spending currently.

So after a while of contemplating it, we decided to take the plunge. A co-worker of mine had recently told me about her chicken tractor. The basic idea behind this structure, as opposed to a more traditional and permanent coop/chicken run, is that you can move the tractor around your yard, giving the chickens an ever changing environment which they can forage for food in. This serves a dual purpose, as the chickens will till up the soil and fertilize it with their poop as they go. My co-worker also claimed that the mobility of the structure helped to reduce the likelihood of rodent infestations. So, with our new-found knowledge of chicken tractors, we looked at several websites with different examples of tractor designs, and finally settled on a cozy A-Frame design reminiscent of a Swiss Chalet. We were able to build it out of mostly recycled wood from a recent renovation project. The only thing we had to purchase new was the chicken wire for around $13 at Cenex.

Carried by the momentum that was growing around this project, I checked out almost every book about chickens that the local library had. "The Field Guide to Chickens" by Pam Percy is filled with pictures, descriptions, and history of just about every chicken breed which ever lived. In addition, "Keep Chickens!" by Barbara Kilarski has become my constant companion.

Ok so now we've (almost) finished the tractor, we've read the books, we've been drooling (er...well something like that) over pictures of different breeds....it's time to take the plunge and buy the damn birds.

We went to the local farm and garden and selected 4 breeds we had read were good layers and had mostly darker plumage (does this word even apply to a chicken???) so that they would not stand out too much to predators. We bought a little feeder and waterer, some starter mash, and compressed wood shavings. We had also previously purchased a 250 watt red tinted heat lamp bulb to keep the little ones at a toasty 95 degrees for the first week of their lives.

We got a pullet run, which means theoretically all of the chicks are girls, but the sexing at the time of their hatching is only 90-95% accurate, so we may have a rooster on our hands...I read that they are sexed based on color, and it can take up to 5 years to train as a chick sexer (I think thats what they are called).


When we got them home, we needed a brooder. A Brooder is where the chicks will live for their first few weeks/months until they are ready to go into their tractor. It needs to have the food dispenser, water dispenser (both of these we picked up at the farm/garden store for under $5.00, and it is worth it to know that they will work), wood shavings to absorb the poop, and a heat lamp. We found an old oversized appliance box and taped up the flaps to make it extra tall, since they would soon be jumping/flying. Then we filled it with the necessary items, dumped the chicks in, and ta-DAAAA we had our very own make-shift brooder!

Our little ladies hatched on March 29th and we got them on March 31st. It's now April 16th, and we have had them for almost 4 weeks.

The first week they would go through about 1 mason jar full of food in 2-3 days. In their second week with us, they started going through 1 jar a day, and now we have to make sure to fill up once in the morning and once in the evening. With the eating comes the pooping. The first week and a half we could get away with changing the wood chips in the brooder every few days, and now they stink it up much sooner.

They have lost almost all of their baby fluff and have begun to develop the beginnings of a comb on the ridge right above their beaks. They are scampering around and every once in a while jumping/flying. They can get about 5-8 inches off the ground! One day we looked in the brooder and saw some poop on the top of their water container, which is about 6 inches tall and we knew they were getting more and more rambunctious. Since we had noticed they were gravitating away from the area directly under the heat lamp, and since the lamp was close enough they could have jumped onto it from the top of the water container, we raised the lamp about 10 inches up. They seem to be more comfortable being directly underneath the lamp now.

This past week we also introduced a few mini-perches into the brooder to give them an opportunity to try out roosting. Since the box they're in is cardboard, we just poked two holes in the sides just big enough for a stick, and stuck a stick through each. They took a few minutes to get used to it, then just hopped right on like old pro's. Oh animal instincts, how I love you so.

Two days ago, Trystan went up to check the chicks and they had knocked over their water container. Those little piggies! So yesterday, since it was a warm, sunny day, and we were out in the garden anyway, we decided to put them in the tractor for a couple hours for a change of scenery. They loved it! I think they will be great foragers.

The breeds we chose are the Ameraucana, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, and the Black Austrolorp. The Buff Orpingtons like to be in the warmest spot in the brooder and seem to sleep the most, and be the most skiddish. There is one Austrolorp who is much smaller than the rest, and I keep calling her Simon Birch. Poor little dear...her Austrolorp partner is by far the largest of the group, and we are suspecting there is a chance it is a rooster. If it is, we will probably keep it, unless it becomes a nuisance, in which case it might become a tasty dinner :) I think a rooster may be a beneficial thing to have around here since there are so many predators, but we'll see, since most people do not recommend having a rooster unless you have 12 or more hens. The Ameraucana's are shaping up to be the most beautiful of the group. They have lovely almost leopard print wings with reddish brown heads and tufts on the sides of their faces. I am also partial to them because they have let me hold them the longest and are always looking up at us from the brooder. So far I cannot tell the difference between the two Silver Laced Wyandottes. This is the only breed where the pair look almost identical. The Buff Orpingtons were yellow when we first got them, but now that their "big girl" wings are developed, they are becoming a lovely light brown.

Well, I guess that brings us up to date on our chick-ventures thus far. I'm sure there will be many more stories to come as they grow through Pullet-hood and then into genuine laying hens.