Busy with chicks hatching
Because I went to NC for two months, just as our two chicks were hatched by the momma hen, I missed out on watching them grow. So, I was eager to start hatching chicks in the incubator. The two chicks have grown into beautiful chickens with unique coloring.
My first experience with the incubator wasn’t very good. I only got two chicks out of about 20 eggs. I didn’t have a hygrometer to measure humidity so I think that was the problem.
Our second incubation was much better. I am only hatching out the green/blue colored eggs. So far, we have 8 chicks. Also, our Silkie hen was sitting on eggs and she is the proud mother of six. I certainly have learned how protective mother hens are with their chicks. Fortunately, the pecks don’t really hurt but she is so fast and she surprises me.
We have the mother hen and her six chicks in a child’s play pen with a heat lamp on them in our shed. We put down some newspaper and then covered it with straw. We put a tile in the corner to sit the water on and then put the feeder in there for the chicks and a bowl of scratch for the mom. The weather has been cold here in Florida and the babies and mom are safe from predators and the cold.
We also purchased four Silkies (hopefully, hens) at our local Swap Meet held at a feed store. I saw a chicken hawk in the trees near our house yesterday and I quickly locked the Silkies in their secure 4 ft by 8 ft chain link cage. It is also 4 ft high so they have lots of room. They are so small and fluffy. I can’t imagine one of them weighing more than two pounds. Easy prey for a hawk.
We have also built some chicken houses which cost about 125 dollars each and we are very pleased with them. They are 4×4x8. We used the deck concrete blocks as the base so the houses could be moved. Also, the concrete blocks allowed there to be room on the bottom so the chickens could quickly run into the house from any side if there was danger from hawks. I will take pictures and also provide info on building on another post. Our first house only took maybe three hours to build and the second house only two hours. I painted the outside of one yesterday in our 72 degree weather.
There are Swap Meets around here where you can buy and sell your animals and plants. Kind of like a flea market but it is mostly about animals. It is a good outlet for selling your excess animals but also meet some really nice people.
Selling/buying on Craigslist under Farm and Garden is also an option. I have purchased chickens from Craigslist and have been very satisfied. The great thing about buying from Craigslist is you go to the home and you see the way the chickens were raised. You can see if it looks like a healthy situation so you don’t bring sick chickens home to infect your flock. One time, when I was looking to purchase chickens, we encountered a snake on the cage of the chickens. It wasn’t a poisonous snake so I wasn’t afraid but the seller screamed for her husband to come help.
Also, you can get ideas from the sellers regarding housing needs for your chickens. Every one has a different set up for their chicken yards. Mine are free range but they are in a large fenced-in area to separate the types of chickens. If I weren’t hatching eggs, it wouldn’t really matter if they were all together.
My newest trick I have learned is how to determine the sex of the chicks. I have learned so much from the backyardchicken.com website. The forum with everyone giving their suggestions/comments has been great. People have asked the exact questions I wanted answered. I love the pictures of the chicks and chickens, too. Who knew there were so many breeds?
Well, it’s time to feed the baby chicks and chickens and dogs. It is suppose to rain most of the day so no painting the chicken houses today.
I hope everyone has a hobby that keeps them as fulfilled as my chicken addiction does me. I spend a lot of time designing chicken yards and the housing. I will end up making some money from all of this but I doubt seriously if I make any profit but it will help pay the feed bill. lol
Retirement is around the corner for my husband and we will be spending our days gardening, raising chickens and running the roads. It is a good thing chickens don’t need a lot of care and we can be gone for a couple days at a time. Good neighbors help, too.