Chicken Update

Here’s the basics… we’re going on a week and a half with poultry in the dining room. I moved them to a larger bin, which didn’t have high enough sides and Edna kept jumping up onto the sides. So I got an even larger bin, with higher sides… and Edna is now jumping up onto the side to roost.

There are a few dilemmas with the jumping up on the side: 1) It drives the dogs absolutely insane. Maggie spent ALL DAY Sunday whining and howling about Edna and the jumping and perching. By the end of a long day of that, I begin questioning my own sanity.  2) I’m worried Edna will forget to hop back into the bin and get stuck on the floor of the crate, between the bin and the sides, making the dogs even more insane and cutting herself off from food/water/company of other chickens for a day while I’m at work. 3) When my sister in law saw the jumping to the side of the bin, she realized it wouldn’t work to have them at their house (perfectly understandable). So the chickens will remain in the Homestead dining room until they are ready to move outside.

The chicks have at least doubled in size. They were probably a week old when we got them from TSC on Holy Saturday. So they are probably 2.5 weeks old (ish). As is always the case, chicks in the house are cute for a bit, and then begin smelling like poultry and kicking up a lot of dust, convincing you that poultry belongs in a coop and not in the dining room. I’m almost there. Of course, it is cold outside and they aren’t big enough… but I am definitely going to do some coop repairs this weekend and maybe try to move them out there with their heat lamp.  

Other dilemmas: Chicks are friendlier chickens when handled a lot while they are tiny. It is too exciting (complicated, dangerous, overwhelming) to do a lot of chicken handling because of the dogs. So I talk to them “Hello chickies” and they all peep back. And they are growing very accustomed to the sound of whining, growling, barking. I’m not sure this will make them smarter in the long run, but it is the reality of life at the Homestead.

Also, it is going to be tough to decide which chicks to pass along to my mom. Edna is the trouble maker in the bunch and I’m thinking we could let her go to the Cous farm where she can jump on things and roost in trees to her little chicken heart’s content. Although she does liven things up a bit around here. I think she enjoys jumping up there just to freak the dogs out.  And admittedly, I decided to take a picture from the dog’s point of view… and it is a little freaky…

I like Frances and Marigold the best- they are Isa Browns and the cute yellow chicks.  We’re keeping those two. And one or two of the black ones (there are two kinds of black ones –can’t remember what type– but all four look the same).

Stay tuned for a tour of the coop in it’s current state… just so you can compare it to the coop once I make the repairs… 🙂