Before and Now for Chick #5 (from first batch of 8)

This is one of the 1^st batch of chicks (8 of them) who is now 3 weeks old.  He/she loves to be held on my hands.  Very stubborn sometimes and wants to escape the cage and just stay on top outside the cage.  I think we need to put some roosts inside the cage.  They want to be high up as they grow so quickly.  The feathers are filling in so fast too. 

This is how this specific chick looks like now at 3 weeks (the next 4 pictures).  I call him/her as chick #5 of the 1^st batch of 8 chicks.

 

This is how the chick looked like at 1 week old

Good dog (that's the first)

Just when we almost gave up… I heard my husband yelling  “Baloo” outside.  And I’m like ‘omg what now?’  But it turned out to be a happy story.  The white chicken is now finally back in the coop.  And guess who helped catch the hen?  Our dog Baloo.  After chasing the chicken out of the bush, he pinned the chicken with his snout mouth closed.  So my husband just went over and picked up the hen.  Baloo pinned down the hen on its butt without harming it.  It’s a miracle.  Now I can relax!

How do you catch a chicken?

I think I’m gonna cry.  One of the 7 free hens that we got is very hard to capture back to the coop.  She has been out since Sunday and I’m very happy she’s still alive.  It’s very hard to catch a chicken.  Today is freezing as if winter has come back (it snowed in our area).  I’ve been worried this chicken is going to be food for other animals.  And I’ve been letting Baloo (our dog) loose outside our house so he can do his business since yesterday because I’ve given up hope that we will ever find the white chicken again.  And guess what today, I saw Baloo was chasing the poor white chicken.  Imagine how terrorized the chicken at this point.  I’ve been trying to lure this chicken back but have no luck at all.  I was almost close but she escaped again.  Any ideas how to catch chicken?  I really hope she will still survive another day loose and we will try again tomorrow.

The reason this white chicken is out is because my husband (to my disappointment) has been given a free rooster.  Yes you heard it right.  And we really have a very small coop that makes them all cramped in there.  My husband made a mistake again of letting the rooster and the hens have a free run without even thinking of putting our dog Baloo on leash.  It’s been crazy trying to think about it.

I will keep trying…

Free Laying Hens Given To Us

My husband found an ad on Craigslist for 7 free laying hens and picked it up last night in Brampton.  They are 9 months old.  We feel so lucky to have them and didn't really expect we're gonna have laying hens this soon.  The coop that I got is too small for 7 hens at the moment but we let them loose during the day for a couple of hours.  They don't seem to wander too far.  They are actually at our front yard.  We will move the coop at the back once the snow all melted. 

I don't know the breeds yet.  I will get to that once I have time this weekend.  The guy who gave them away are moving so they need to give away the chickens.  At first we were very hesitant to take them.  But once they were here, they are very easy to handle.  Very docile chicken and loves to forage.

Here's one of the pictures I took today.

 

 

 



12 Additional Chicks

I can’t keep up with my posts.  Last April 4, we purchased 12 additional 3-day old chicks and here they are.  Now we have a total of 20 chicks.  Okay please don't think we're crazy. I couldn't resist the cute factor of these chicks. We've acquired 12 additional 3-day old chicks. One of them is Brahma and one is Cochin. The rest are Dorkings. Here’s their pictures.  I hope I didn't miss anyone.  My mom would have been so amused with these chicks if she's still alive.  She wanted me to have chicken long time ago but we cannot live full time at the farm yet.

Chick #1 of 12 (dots on head)

 

Chick #2 of 12 (mohawk head)



 

 

 Chick #3 of 12

Chick #4 of 12

 

 Chick #5 of 12

 

 Chick #6 of 12 (triangle head)

 

 Chick # 7 of 12

 

 Chick #8 of 12

 

 Chick #9 of 12

 

 Chick #10 of 12

 

 Chick #11 of 12

 

 Chick # 12 of 12

 

I talk to the chicks everytime I handle them so that soon when they’re old enough to be outside in free roaming and I need to catch them back into their coop, they will apparently let you carry them.  I still have to find out if that’s true.

 

Germinating Seeds

Out of the 24 spinach, only 7 germinated so far.  It’s been 9 days since I sowed them.  It’s been very busy after finishing my day job I don’t even have time to watch TV (note we only have one channel) except for Survivor which I follow on a weekly basis.

Out of the 23 chives/onions, nothing germinated so far.

And out of the 23 dill, only 1 germinated.

I’m surprised that spinach germinated considering it’s one of the plants that are more difficult to grow based on what I’ve read so far.

Day 2 with the baby chicks

Now I know why we were given this one specific chick (the black chick on the left and facing left in the above pic).  It turned out he has separation anxiety from human (not from its fellow chicks).  Frances thought it had separation anxiety with another chick we originally got.  This one chick is very loud especially when he knows you’re not around (okay I don’t know the gender yet so I will just refer as a him).  And he knows how to escape from the plastic bin even after we taped newspapers around it.  He’s a strong-willed chick.  We’re concerned he might break his leg if he keeps doing this.  He has escaped a few times and found him running around the bathroom.  Here’s his picture (below).  I think I’m gonna call this one ‘Chirpy’.  He’s constantly squacking and I don’t know how long he’s gonna be like this.  He keeps quiet though when you talk or sing to him or just stand around near him. 

It’s only been about 24 hours since we got them and it’s becoming obvious who’s going to be the bossy one.  I'm going to call it "Chipmunk" (that one on the lower right hand corner in below pic).

 

 

Last night, we were going to leave the chicks in our bedroom but the smell of the pine shavings bothered me and made me sneeze.  So we put them in the bathroom and we made sure the door’s completely shut.  The cats don’t show much interest with the chicks today but we’re still very careful not to leave them unattended.

The chicks have grown more feathers on their wings.  There’s a small black chick that we are a bit worried about.  He doesn’t eat much yesterday but now at least I saw him eat.  He’s the weakest of the flock and has a small bald spot in his back.  He's the one in between the two white chicks in below picture.  We’re thinking of bringing him back on Friday as suggested by Frances (owner of the farm where we bought the chicks).  She also has a few Rhode Island Red chicks coming so it’s very tempting to add more chicks.

 

 

The chicken coop I bought from Amazon arrived today.  Our backyard is still covered with snow so we set it up on the porch and will move it at the back once the snow is gone.  The coop I got is not very big but it is just a temporary coop while my husband is going to build a bigger one (crossing my fingers).   It won’t be very clean once the chicks are ready to live outside (around end of May). 

 

And on top of that I have a few vegetable seeds I need to germinate indoors.  Oh my, this is gonna be a busy spring season.  We can’t till the land yet.  I wish snow would melt soon...