It’s always an exciting day when the baby chicks arrive. They are tiny, cute and fuzzy and they scoot all around the brood box. Amazingly, unlike other birds which emerge naked and blind from their eggs, chickens arrive fully formed and self sufficient from day one. They just need food, water and warmth.
This is the second shipment of chicks for us. The first shipment of three arrived last June and we had great success. We began getting eggs from them in December.
Being neophyte chicken ranchers, however, we made the mistake of allowing our birds to free range unsupervised on our property. The inevitable occurred in April when a hawk took one of them. In an instant our egg production dropped by a third. So we decided to add to our flock. Since our town allows us to own a total of 10 we decided to go to the limit, but for some reason my wacky wife only ordered 7 so we now have a total of 9.
Having nearly a year of experience under our belts I can honestly say that chickens are one dumb animal. Chickens look at the world one way – “is it food?” And of course, for a chicken, it usually is. I’ve seen them eat plastic, styrofoam, and rocks. They even ate all the caulking from around a window as far as they could reach. As my wife says, just be glad chickens aren’t 10 feet tall because we’d all be chicken feed.
On the plus side they certainly are tame animals and very social. And they deliver fresh eggs almost daily. You can’t really dislike a creature that asks so little of you and provides a healthy and delicious bounty.
About the Setup
The box is from Costco and was used to ship grapefruits; last year we used a watermelon box. They are great because they have high sides and can be recycled once we move the chickens to the coop. The bottom of the box is covered in pine shavings which are replaced weekly. They can be purchased at any pet supply or animal feed store. The heat lamp and infrared bulb were purchased at Lowes. They are attached to microphone stand (something we had already) so that we can adjust the heat source as the chicks grow. The thermometer in the corner lets us keep an eye on the termperature. They are supposed to be kept at 90-95 degrees (f) for the first week. The temperature can be reduced by 5 degrees each week thereafter. The white thing is a folding stool, we placed it there to give them some cover and a place to hide. The red thing is a waterer. It’s important to have a waterer sized for chicks so they don’t fall in and drown. The long silver thing is a feeder that allows the chicks to put their heads through so they don’t poop in their food. In a few weeks the chicks will be capable of limited flight so we have an old screen door that we will cover the box with.
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