Britney, Christina and Beyonce
The 3 stooges
My husband and I were thinking of names for our girls. I'm a huge 90's pop star loser, so when my husband said how about we name them Britney, Beyonce and Christina a HUGE smile came across my face. Our girls....
The cuteness only lasted about a few weeks, cause they grew FAST. Every bird goes through an "ugly" duckling stage. It hit them around 3 weeks old. When they were about a week old, we introduced them to the dogs. Forget the cats. They're assholes.
3wks old
They grew fast! In the picture above, they were about 3 weeks old and already growing out of their brooder. We didn't know what to do. I wanted my girls to be comfortable and have space to stretch their legs but I didn't want them running around the house all the time. They do poop everywhere. It's ok though, we had 2 dogs who apparently like to eat anything on the floor. EW!
I went to Walmart and bought another bin thinking maybe I can somehow combine the 2. We used a jigsaw to cut the holes in the plastic containers. Then I had an old plastic juice carton that I cut up with scissors to connect the 2. VOILA, I made them a duplex! 1 container held their food and water, the other side had room for them to stretch their legs, roost and play with twigs.
When they were about 4wks old we started to notice one of the chickens was getting a comb. We did our research and Rhode Island Red pullets do have big combs. They are big bright and red just that of a rooster. Some chicks even mature faster than their siblings of the same age. Weird. If you look at the pics above you can even see the comb of Beyonce.
about 8wks old
At 8weeks, we had a problem. I was gone for an entire day. My husband got home before I did and calls me. This is how the conversation went:
Hubby-Hey hun, I just got home and uhhh....did you let the chickens out?
Me- hey, uhh no? why?
Hubby- I just got home and the house in a wreck
Me- what are you talking about?
Hubby- The house is a wreck, somehow the chickens go out of their thing and ran a muck through our house
Me- Wait, I don't get it. What are you saying
Hubby- There's shit everywhere!
Me- oohhh.....uh......I'm on line at Homegoods so I can't leave.
Yep, it was time for a bigger cage. When we had them in the brooder, we had this wire mesh cloth over it to prevent them from flying out. They outgrew it in 8 weeks. I called the contractor who was making our chicken coop and he said he would be done in a week. Great. We just needed a temporary home until then.
I still wonder to this day what the heck these birds were up to for the entire day.
We put them in the dog crate temporarily. The thing with the storage bins was they were getting too tall and just pushed the mesh so they could get out. They were smart. The chicken coop will be here in 5 days. Great.
Man power!
Thing weighed about 600lbs
Yay, chicken coop was here! So happy to get these girls out of the house.
We had to make some reinforcements to the coop to ensure NOTHING was getting in or out. We Built the run with simple non treated 4x4 and used 1/4" hardware cloth around. We doubled up the immediate bottom and dug about a foot under the ground. Then we bent the hardware cloth out so nothing would try to dig underneath. We put latches on every door and secured the window. Nothing was getting in.
We ordered these amazing feeders from a company in Australia called Dine-0-Chook. They have been a lifesaver for us and highly recommend them. Since we have field mice and snakes, they can crawl along the ground eating up scraps. Chickens make a mess. There is no way around it. These feeders were designed for chickens and their combs to ensure minimal food waste. They actually have to stick their head in the feeder to grab their food. There is no flipping over trays or water getting in. The water feeders are convenient too. Say you live in the North East and temps drop below freezing. Their water is going to freeze. We have one set up inside their coop so they have unlimited access to it. In the morning when we let them out of the coop to eat, we bring a fresh water feeder to replace the frozen one. No constant back and forth. We ordered 3 of each, water and food feeder. They're great.
Move in day!
Man, was I happy to get them out and into their new home. We set them up inside the coop for 3 days to get them acquainted with their new roost, nest boxes and feeders. After 3 days they knew where their new home was, so we let them out into the run. They LOVE it!
