Mom/Chicken Farmer: teenage mutant ninja chickens

Okay, not really. But at four weeks old, our chickens are officially teenagers, and like teenagers everywhere they are noisy, eat a lot, and they stink. We have to go down three times a day to give them new food, which may have to do with the fact that half of them are Cornish Crosses, meaning they are genetically engineered to eat and gain weight fast, but still, they eat a lot.
They are big now, and starting to lose their down and grow in their big chicken feathers, which makes them look weird and patchy.

What do you think you're looking at?

Also, something I was not prepared for since I didn't grow up around chickens or anyone who had them, was how strongly they smell. Their first day with us we had them in a large side closet in our house, this lasted exactly 24 hours. By that time we were all sneezing, had itchy, watery eyes, and were begining to second guess this whole chicken thing.
So down to the basement they went. This has worked out better, though after two weeks they started  smelling strongly enough that you could smell it in the house. Now it is bad enough that I am keeping windows open as much as possible during the day to air out the house. This is after we already change out the litter and clean their cage every other day. Needless to say we are getting tired of this. On my husbands next days off we are going to run electricity out the the shed cum chicken coop and get those smelly birds out of the house. Sadly it is still getting down into the 20's and 30's at night here so they have to have heat lamps out there. Also, another reason they have to get out to thier coop is that they are getting too big for their cage. Our large breed dog kennel was once plenty big for 15 chickens, but no more.

crowded chicken jail

So, chicken raising has its downsides, but I am still optimistically looking forward to our very first freshly laid egg and our first home grown chicken dinner.

Mom/Chicken Farmer: Chicken Day!!!

Today is the day! This morning, bright and early, we took the half hour drive into the nearby 'big' town to pick up our chickens. We are now the proud parents of 10 Cornish Cross and 7 Rhode Island Reds. I am naming the Cornish Crosses 'Dinner #1, Dinner #2, etc. to remind myself not to get too attached. The Rhode Island Reds I will name as they grow and become distinct personalities, since they are sticking around. We have a shed all picked out to be converted into a coop, and a nice warm brooder for them tucked into the closet. We were going to put them out into the shed, but we haven't run electricity out there yet and it started to snow again today! Apparently the 50 degree sunny weather yesterday was nature's April's Fools joke on us, because suddenly there is a fluffy white blanket covering what only yesterday was my muddy, early spring yard.

Chicks explore their brooder.

Everyone loves the chicks. I'm sure the dogs just want to eat them, but they are being pretty good about not hovering over the brooder, they only check on the chicks once or twice an hour, when they've forgotten what that cheeping noise is and have to find out. The baby, okay not baby, almost-one-year-old, finds them fascinating. He likes to stand at the cage, hang onto the bars and squeal at the chicks, which thankfully doesn't seem to bother them.
Speaking of the almost-one-year-old, he is going through a super clingy, only wants to be in mom's arms or playing with mom, scared of almost everyone else phase. This does not bode well for his birthday party next week. Also it means I have been writing this post in two minute incriments over the course of several hours.

more of the cute chickens.

Anyway, it has taken me so long to write this post that I have forgotten where I was going with it. To sum up: yay chickens! Here is a cute picture to wrap it all up.

Look Mom, Chickens!!!