Happy Homesteading: The Chickens are one week old

Time for another chicken post!

After only 3 days we had one chick {Lacy} fly up to the top of the bin and start looking around.  Then a day later the others also learned this new skill. I couldn’t believe it.  Comet also saw the chicks for the first time when they flew to the top of the bin. Its not hard to guess what he was thinking. I am really getting nervous after seeing the way he looked at them. I swear…if he kills them…

You know…why in the world did I ever get a dog in the first place? HE doesn’t give me eggs! I just pay money out for him for food, and he digs up my yard (you can see the holes in the picture above, poops all over the place and destroys my flowers and garden. Sheesh!  Okay rant over.

We now have a cover over the bin so they don’t get out all day long. (I saved it from one of our laundry hampers I bought at Walmrt that the kids broke last month).  Also, you will note that we have a red heat lamp – this is so if a chick gets a cut the others won’t peck her to death. Chickens are strange like that.

The chicks have grown a lot in one week. They all have a nice set of wings and are starting to grow tail feathers. They are really fun and get a LOT of holding time from the kids which I am glad for. I am hoping they will all be really used to people and will come to us when they are big.

I did a comparison so you can see how much they grew in just one week on each chick. Kinda fun to see.

Ginger is still super friendly and seems to be the first one to come to any of us. She is really curious and loves to be held. I am worried a little about a couple of areas on her though..it looks like where new wings are coming in or something, but they are darker areas. Any ideas there from former chicken farmers?

 

Lacy is the biggest of them all still but still doesn’t care to be held as much. She tries to flap her wings when we hold her.

Roxie is still my favorite because she is so friendly and sweet!

Molly has green feet now! And she is getting much bigger as well. Still a bit shy about being picked up, but once she is up she is still and sweet.

 NOT SO FUN STUFF

One thing you have to watch out for with baby chicks during the first week is a condition called Pasty Butt. If the chicks get their poop stuck to their bums, it can seal it up and will kill them if they can’t go. So if you start seeing any poop stuck you gotta wash it off. Only one of our 4 chicks had this.  Sorry if you are grossed out by this, but farming ain’t all flowers and fresh milk. 😉

This chick had it worse the first day, this picture is mild compared to the first day.  Oh yeah, I am making you look at a chicken’s butt.  Ha ha ha..

So when your chick gets Pasty Butt you just need to take a warm wash cloth and wash the poop off gently. No picking it off, it can hurt them. We had Roxie sit in some warm water (in a bowl) and gently washed it off.

Problem is when they have wet feathers, the others will peck at them so you will want to separate them until dry. My son held Roxie with a wash cloth until she was dry. He loves doing things like that.

Another problem I was having is the chicks were always kicking pine shavings into their water. So I added a weight underneath and it’s been much better.

The only other problem is the smell of poop! I have been changing out their bin every 3 days because its really messy and I don’t like the smell. My mom who has chickens says she only cleans it out once per week.

How often should I be changing their bin of pine shavings?

Little Chicks, How We Love Thee…

Even though we have a little bit of work and had a few poopy issues, we LOVE our babies! We all watch them a lot – they are very entertaining. My mom says I need to find baby freezer worms to give them – she says it is so funny to see them go crazy looking for them. So maybe this week I will head on down to the feed store and find some.

Our favorite thing right now is when they just fall asleep in our hands, it is the sweetest thing ever.

I will end today’s Happy Homesteading post with this picture for your enjoyment. It says it all.