The Christening of the Chicks

Our little chicks are doing great. As you can see they are losing their down and we are getting a glimpse of what their coloring will be upon henhood. It's been warm enough on some days that I've taken them out from under the heat lamp and brought the out to the backyard for short stretches. They seem a little anxious being outside; for the most part they just stand, looking around.
Though not shown in the picture (not the food, anyway), I've had to elevate their food and water. They were kicking so much of the pine shavings into it they couldn't get to the food they covered, and the shavings clogged up the water- we were having to clean out the waterer every couple of hours.
Also, I think we've settled on some names.  Felix thought up both of them: the Rhode Island Red is Cheepy, and the Barred Rock is Strong Chicken.

Simulpost: Barred Rock and R.I. Red (with bonus material)

I am putting together our first ever simulpost; an event in which one post appears simultaneously on two blogs.  This idea was given to me from my memory of a "simulcast" of some bygone Olympics on different channels.  Actually, I don't really remember if that did, in fact, happen. Anyway this post will appear on Our Felix, and Los Pollos Dinamicos.

So what occasion is so big it justifies two blogs? We got two more chicks; a Barred Plymouth Rock (the black chick), and a Rhode Island Red (the red chick). Currently we are keeping the chicks in a large box in the dining room. We will keep them here for about another week before we move them into the garage. Because of the rat problem we had in the past, I built a tractor to cover the chicks' box at night when we move them to the garage. It's really just a precaution. When the chicks are a little older, we'll be able to take them out in the yard under the protection of the tractor. I'll include a picture of it in a future post.
Felix adores the chicks and has been spending a lot of time holding them or watching them.  We will know when Felix has picked up one of the chicks because the chick remaining in the box will cheep until her friend gets returned.

I don't know how Pip, Stripe, and Horace feel about the little additions, I haven't asked them.  I suppose "deal with it" is what I'd tell them if they had an issue with it.  Though my three girls are good layers, we seem to be averaging about 17 eggs a week.  We got lucky in a way in that each of them lay different color eggshells; we easily track how well each is producing.  My understanding with the two breeds we just picked up, they will produce brown eggshells, I imagine similar to Stripe.  I notice some variation in shading in each of our layer's eggs, I'm thinking that will probably make it unlikely that we will be able to distinguish the eggs.
As for names for our babies, we haven't decided yet for certain.  The Rhode Island Red, Felix considers his.  He has gone between Cheepy and Strong Chicken and may settle on both to make a very long name.  The Barred Rock is a breed I wanted to get last year but it wasn't available at that time.  I don't have any ideas though Felix had referred to her as Speedy at one time.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.
Prior to the chicks arrival, Renae emailed me a picture of what she thought would be Felix's dream of what our chicks would look like:

Pullet, You'll Be a Hen Soon

Or... they already are. Everything we were told and read explained that our chickens would probably not lay until Spring. If we wanted eggs, we would have to install a light in their coop to fool the chickens into thinking the days are long. We believed this and we were genuinely shocked when we discovered an egg. Renae went to let the chickens out to free range one early January morning and saw an odd roundish shape nestled in a nesting box. Curious about what it was she walked to the back of the coop and was delighted to see a brown egg.
Because we did some research about the chickens we got, we knew the egg had to be Stripe's, the Delaware. Very shortly after, and because Renae may have an egg allergy, I got to eat the egg. It had a brighter, and maybe a little larger, yolk than store bought eggs. It was delicious. To me, the flavor was the same as store bought eggs, just that it had more flavor.
It wasn't long after that that we found a bluish egg. As the other two hens are both Easter Eggers, we weren't sure which it was. Renae noticed that Pip was visiting the nesting boxes, and then I eventually witnessed Pip laying an egg. She was standing, though crouched, in a nesting box; I saw her backside convulse and then a quick "ba-cock" and an egg gently falls onto the pine shavings.
And finally, early February, our Horace, the one we had rooster concerns about, delivered unto us a pinkish egg. My understanding regarding Easter Eggers is that they are somewhat mutt chickens, therefore it is only a probability that they will lay bluish eggs, and that you can not absolutely predict what color the eggs will be. You will also notice that Horace and Pip look quite different, well, that is what it means to be an Easter Egger. I read that those pinkish eggs are very rare.
Because the eggs are so easy to discern from who they came, I've been keeping track of the hens egg laying. Stripe and Pip are prolific producers; about 5-6 eggs a week. Horace is about 3-4 a week. But, as Horace told me, "My eggs are pink, bitches".
The chickens have become very attached to Renae- she is their rooster. They now follow her when she comes outside and have learned to perch up on the porch railing so they could see in the back window and gaze upon Renae's eminence. This created a poop-on-the-porch problem that I wasn't to keen on. I think my solution will alleviate that:

The Infestation

That cute little adorable rat is now dead- I killed him. I had an introspective moment after doing so; it's the first time I intentionally killed something larger than a bug. I suppose I'm experiencing some ambivalence regarding it.
When I built the coop and run, I did not plan for rats; I planned for raccoons, cats, hawks, eagles, and dogs. When I first discovered the rat, I had no idea how to handle the situation, how to prepare, or the severity of the problem. I figured correctly that the rat had come in from under the coop; the only area that did not have a subterranean border. I dug this area out and and laid down chicken wire. I came out later that day to capture the above picture. I was very self-satisfied thinking I had foiled the rat and solved the problem. Later that day, I went out to check and saw that the rat had found his way inside. I sneaked up on him ninja-style and took his life. I still don't know for certain how he got in; I thought it may have been through the overlap in the chicken wire that makes up the run. I wired that overlap tight and again I was confident the rat problem would be only a memory. I was very wrong and realized that there was a colony of rats living under the coop. They dug a network of holes under the chicken wire and were stealing the chickens food. Not only were they digging under the chicken wire, but the small ones could fit through the chicken wire mesh.
I got the great idea of inventing a rat trap. Here is a picture of it. So far, it has caught nothing, though, it appears no rat has even attempted to go near it as the bait has remained untouched. I dug all along the run, about 18" deep and put in a barrier of 1/2" hardware cloth. For a couple of days this seemed to work, but then I saw that they had managed to dig under that as well.
There was more that I tried to do and I won't go into everything but I was getting disillusioned with this whole thing and even briefly considered getting rid of the chickens. Eventually I dug out the entire run and laid down hardware cloth, attaching it to the run walls. So far it seems to have worked, though I'm not convinced; we still leave no food in the coop overnight.
Another problem we were having has to do with rain. The run became nothing more than a big mud pit. It was a precarious adventure just walking in there it was so slick. To relieve this, I attached a tarp to the garage wall (which the run and coop border)above the run and stretched it across the chicken wire roof and affixed it to the side of the run. This has worked great but blocks out the sun on nice days. I solved this by running 3/8" x 10' rebar through the eyelets at the bottom of the tarp. I can now use the end of the rebar I can reach to lift and fold back the tarp.

On To Hendom

Alright, I think I can say we dodged a bullet; it looks like Horace is a hen. No eggs yet, however, and with the winter coming we may not get any until Spring. Renae is pretty bummed about that, but I'm just happy we don't have a rooster.
They eat much more now, as a matter of fact, this last month they as much as they did the first four months combined. And that is only considering their feed, we've given them even more of our scraps. We also discovered that they are fond of strawberries, as they peck at them a day before we are ready to pick them.
The other day, Stripe (the white one, who appears to be the dominate hen) gave us a little scare. We were out in the backyard while the chickens were free-ranging when Stripe had decided she was going to see how unfriendly that barking dog behind us actually was. In truth, the dog was not out and while I stood poised on top of some railroad ties, ready to jump the six foot fence in case the dog came out, Renae ran around the block to enter the yard the proper way.
That's about it for now, they really just eat and poop. We have them on layer feed now which is what they'll be on from now on out.

R.I.P. Pepper 5/25/09 - 7/17/09

Tragedy befell us way back on July 17th. Pepper, one of the Delawares, was viciously murdered by a neighborhood cat. It did upset me, largely because I should have been paying attention and realized sooner that she had slipped out under the backyard fence. When it did occur to me that she was missing, I ran around to the front yard and then through a neighbors yard just in time to see the culprit dash across the street with Pepper in it's mouth. I'm only now able to blog again. Perhaps I'm being a little dramatic; that's what Renae thought the day it happened when she told me "It's just a chicken". I'll remind her of what "just" is come her next birthday.
So, obviously, the remaining chickens have gotten bigger, but the rate of change has slowed down. We do have some concerns that Horace may be a rooster; the tail feathers are noticeably longer than the other two's tail feathers, and Horace seems larger and is heavier. But, Horace has not tried to crow, nor has his/her comb grown any more the others. And the size difference really isn't that much. We remain hopeful. We don't want to be down to two chickens.
So, aside from the slaying of Pepper, there is not much to report. We still have them on starter feed, though imagine we should get them the next level of feed pretty soon. Also, they free range quite a bit, and we give them produce from our garden and table scraps, though I will not give them chicken- it seems wrong to turn animals into cannibals.
I'd thought about why Renae was so cold about the death of Pepper, and perhaps it's because the chickens don't respond to her the way they do to me. When I come out to see them, they rush to the coop door. They follow me around while free ranging, and all I have to do to get them back in their coop is to walk into it myself. Renae has to enlist Felix to chase and catch them. They poop on her shoes and glare at her when she is near. The last two claims may be exaggerations. The video below is of them chasing me.

Palais de Poulet

For the most part the chickens new home is done. Actually, it's been done for almost two weeks, I'm only now getting around to finishing this post. It is now July 10th by the way.

I was able to complete Palais de Poulet during Renae and Felix's little trip to Ocean Shores. I finally figured how I would construct the door: Originally I was going to use 1x2's for the door, but the the remaining chicken wire I had was only two feet wide which would leave a little short in the width of the door. I was able to use 1x3 cedar that, after I cut to size, laid out flat on my driveway waterproof-gluing the joints and securing that joint with galvanized staples. After a couple of hours I set the door over an old shower curtain atop some bricks so I could prime two coats without getting the driveway. I then painted with some exterior house paint we had sitting in our garage for the past few years. The next day, to reinforce the joints, I attached some small galvanized straps, the chicken wire, and the hinges.
As that went so smoothly, and after realizing the coop may be too small, I decided to move the interior wall I had erected a couple of weeks prior back about 18 inches. I also thought it would be a good idea to cover the coop floor in vinyl tile instead of the bare plywood it was, and also to recess the nesting boxes into the interior wall to assure the chickens even more space. Last, I put up a few feet if roosting perches.

Since I finished, the chickens having been living in their new digs. The first couple of nights I found them huddled by the door. Both nights I moved them into the coop where they stayed. They don't seem to want to walk around if it's dark. The next night, and every night since, they all huddle into one of the nesting boxes. They won't be able to do that too much longer as they will be too big to all fit. They have yet to get up onto the perches. I wonder if the perches are too high for them.