This and that, but mostly chicks

Here it is Wednesday and the chicks are still doing well. They are four days old now and starting to get real wing feathers. Actually, some of them were getting them when they came. But all of them have them now and some of them have quite large wing feathers for such little birds.

I was having problems with them making a huge mess of their water, both by spilling it and by getting bedding in it. I still had the plastic that was cut out of the tops of the totes to make the brooders, so I cut them to make platforms to go under the waterers. So far it's working quite well. Tomorrow I quit using the paper towel though and they will just have pine shavings. So I'm sure I'll be cleaning out the waterers more often. I'm thinking I may leave some paper towel just under the waterers.

I have one of the garden beds planted finally. I know I should have done it a couple weeks ago, but I can't change that now. I planted lima beans (thanks Chris), green onions (thanks again Chris), green beans, wax (yellow) beans, sweet corn, radishes, lettuce, serrano peppers, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. The other garden bed will be done with all transplants since we still don't have all the dirt in it yet. It will have tomatoes, various squash, peas, watermelon, pumpkin, cucumbers and herb. I think I'm going to like gardening with the raised beds.

The worm bins are going good. I think we may have to get a bigger bin soon or start putting them in the garden. There are a lot of worms in the one bin. It looked like there were a lot of eggs in there too, so many more on the way.

Here are some pictures I took of the chicks today:


This chick didn't want to sit still to have her picture taken. Her landing was successful, so no need to worry about the fall.


This is one of the araucanna bantams. Compared to them, the other chicks seems to be growing much faster.


Here are Jade and Megan with a couple of the chicks. The chicks didn't mind sitting on their laps, but didn't really want to be held. It all went well until Braden decided to grab a chick. The poor thing survived it though.


The picture doesn't do justice to how pretty this chicks wings are. She has the most beautiful white feathers coming in.

I've found it's really nice to have two brooders. I put them all in one while I clean the other, then put them all in that one to clean the second one. I'm also hoping that mixing the chicks up daily will help to stop any problems occurring when they all go into the coop together.

If anyone has any guesses about the breeds of any of the chicks pictured in the blog, I'd love to hear them.

THEY'RE HERE!!

I got the call from the post office at 7:27am and was at the post office and back home by 8:00am. There were 30 chicks in all and so far they all seem healthy and lively. They are eating and drinking well and seem to be comfortable with the temperature.

Here are some pictures.Brooder 1 has 15 chicks total. Obviously if you count them you will know there are one or two missing in this picture.

Brooder 2 also has 15. Again, not all are pictured.

I think this one is a Light Brahma. It looks darker in the picture than it actually is.

This is our one and only Turken. I thought I didn't want any, but now I might be wishing I had more. So far this chick is the first one to run up for attention when my hand goes in the brooder.

So there they are. Megan is in her glory and just can't decide which one is going to be her "Boo Boo Chicken". The order was for 25 of McMurrary's Brown Egg Layer Assortment and 3 Araucana Bantams. They gave us an extra bantam free and also the order included a free rare chick. I'm hoping that we have at least 2 roosters so that we will be able to hatch chicks in the spring.

OK, I'm off to dote on my new babies. I'll post more pictures soon. I'm just so EXCITED!