Chicken TV

The chicks are getting older, almost 4 weeks now (but 3 weeks in the video/pictures below), and as they get older they get more and more entertaining to watch. I find myself getting my morning coffee and going downstairs to see what's new in the chicken world. I can sit there and watch them for what seems like hours.

Most of the time I'm looking at their features, how their feathers are coming in, and trying to guess if they'll be boys or girls. I also try to guess what colors they will be when they're fully feathered and what breeds they might be since we got mixed breed chicks. My opinions of each chick seem to change from day to day, but as they get bigger I think the answers are becoming more clear.

The most interesting thing to watch is their behavior. Some chicks are proficient scratchers and are the main reason their water is always full of wood shavings. Other chicks seem to be "whiners", walking around and chirping their very distinguishable high pitched chirps. A few, I'm assuming they will be boys, are very macho and walk around stealing food from other chicks. I'm always impressed with the chicks who seem to be learning to steer when they fly and can perch up on the edge of the brooder to get a better view of their surroundings (although the minute they see my they fly back to safety.

I feed them treats and try to handle them every day because they are still pretty spooked when I move quickly or stand up. Some are getting better and rush to see me, while others hide in the back and wait to get their treats after I leave. I'm hoping by the time we move them outside in a few weeks will will all be friends. I don't like the idea of running around trying to catch chickens when it's time to go in the coop for the night.

Here's a video of the chicks at snack time. I talk a little bit about them, where they are in their development, and their current temporary chick home:

While I wasn't able to catch any chicks for their movie debut, I was able to snap a few pictures.

This is Sadie, she is one of my favorites (I hope she's a she!). She seems very delicate and shy compared to the others. She's one that has a distinguishable chirp and always hangs back and waits for her treats. I am in love with her grey coloring.

Sadie at 3 days old
Sadie at 3 weeks and 3 days old
This is Hank. I'm trying very hard to not get attached to the chicks that I think might be boys, in case they end up going to new homes or in the stew pot, but with Hank I just can't help it. It's very sweet, the first to come to me for treats, and will perch on my hand so he gets the best access to whatever treats I'm hand feeding the chicks. I'll talk more about why I think he's a boy in another post, but it has to do with feather color, his legs, and his comb (the mohawk between his eyes).

Hank at 3 weeks and 3 days old
This is Poe. She looked very much like a Raven when she was a chick, but is feathering out in the neatest leopard pattern. I'm still on the fence as to whether she's a she or he, but for now I'm going to be optimistic and call her a girl.

Poe at 3 weeks and 3 days old
All of the other chicks were to anxious and the pictures turned out blurry, but I'm hoping to do a new photo shoot on Tuesday, when they are 4 weeks old.

Chicks Right At Home

I finally got the real proof of our building adventures on video, and off the video camera, quite a feat if I do say so myself. Here's a little snippet from the beginning of the chicken coop building on March 10th. Since then we've gotten the roof attached but we still need to finish the inside, attach the metal roof, and paint it. I wish the weather wasn't so cruddy this weekend, but I'm sure we'll get it finished soon.

Today I upgraded the chicks living quarters to give them a little more space and so I could raise their heat lamp more to keep them from being to hot. We have an extra dog kennel that I'm hoping will help contain the chicks more as they start to fly. I may have to get a piece of chicken wire to cover the other part of the brooder. They're growing so fast!

I was also able to get some video of the chicks today eating some fresh fruits and veggies and one of the chicks took her first dust bath. How cute!

Which came first?

The chicken or the egg?

I'm pretty sure that for most "Chicken Farmers", the coop came first. At least it probably should. We made our best effort and had the greatest intentions, but were only moderately successful in erecting our "Chicken Mansion" before the arrival of our chicks. Luckily, the chicks will be living in our spare bathroom until they are fully feathered, so we have a few more weeks to finish the coop.

I started by researching coop designs in books and online to find the one that I liked the best. There is a very basic design in the book How to Build Animal Housing. I think it was quite large, 10'x12', which is larger than we would need. I really, really loved the design of this coop posted on the community website Backyard Chickens. It has a separate area closed off for food storage, vents that lift up for easy cleaning, and lots of windows. I took these two designs and sketched what I wanted for our coop.

I wanted a door so I could walk in, a window for light, vents at the top for ventilation, and I wanted it to be insulated since we live in Montana and I want to promote egg laying in the cold winter months. The final design is an 8'x8' coop that is 6' high in front and 4' high in back. We found a 5' used door and used window that opens. We are going to seal the floor so that it doesn't rot and instead of having a separate closed off area for feed I'm going to get some lidded garbage cans to leave in the coop with feed and first aid supplies.

The coop is going to be placed in the front of our property where we can see it from the house and they will be close to the garden so they can work their magic on our soil. It's between two trees to provide wind protection in the winter and sun protection in the summer. The last piece we need is the fencing to protect them from our dogs.

The progress we made last weekend:
Here are the chicks in their temporary home under their heat lamp! More on them tomorrow...

Chicken and Duck Stock

Making your own chicken stock is really easy and it's a great way to get a little more use out of that roasted chicken. The entire process from raw bird to stock is really easy and fairly inexpensive. We went down to the farmers market and bought a chicken from the Pondera Hutterite Colony for $7.50. We bought a bag of carrots, head of celery, and 2 onions (we were able to use half for the chicken and half for the duck a week later). Roasting the chicken took about 2 hours. The chicken provided us with 3-4 meals and plenty of doggie treats for the pups.

The stock was even easier, Simply Canning has a great recipe and a tip I hadn't considered: save up your scraps over time in the freezer until you have enough to make stock, that way you don't have to buy it all at once.

For the stock we put the chicken bones, skin, and leftover bits we didn't want to eat in a large pot with some chopped up celery, carrots and onion (it's not an exact science, use what you have on hand) and let it simmer for several hours, the longer the better. I think we ended up simmering it for 4-6 hours. Then we strained out the chicken pieces, bones, and vegetables. Use the pressure canner method to can the stock. Easy!

We did the same thing with the duck, but that was a special treat since the bird was $16. We won't be doing that every week, but it sure was tasty and it makes a really rich and fatty stock. Now we have about 20 pints and 4 quarts of homemade stock to use. I love adding a little stock when I'm cooking rice or barley, it adds a really nice flavor to it.

Here are the chicken and duck stocks side by side: