Happy Hallmark Day! Did you remember to buy every person you know a valentine day card, some chocolate, a flower? Oh, you did, well good for you. Not me. This is a not, nor has it been for a really, really long time, a holiday I embrace. This is a holiday solely for the purpose of buying crap we don't care about to give to people we don't care about. Guess you could say it was ruined in college when volunteering at a local elementary school. The rule of thumb was "in order to pass out cards, students must give a card to all everyone in the class". Gee, that is just stupid. Why in the world would any third grader give a card to a student he/she does not like or to a student who is mean to him/her? Hypocrites, we are teaching hypocrisy. So no, no cards or candy or cupids were given or received today at Plan473. And you know what? The day went by just fine!
However, as much as it may seem that we are a cold hearted bunch of fuddy-duds, there was still plenty of love in the air. So much so, it was decided to spread the love. We just chose to spread our love towards chicks. Yup, that is right, baby chicks/little peeps/peepers/chicklets/puffballs. Today, after many days of debating and discussing, the Kid and I went to the local mom and pop feed store and picked us up some. 10 be exact. 10 little, one week old chicks. Not being choosy on what brands desired, we chose based up their cuteness. How else do you decide what chick you want? Or sure, there are chickens for eggs, chickens for meat, chickens for bugs, chickens who guard, chickens who are kid friendly, chickens with tuft heads, chickens with long legs, chickens with no tail feathers, big chickens, little chickens, red chickens, white chickens, etc.... And of course, there is your general "good for all things needed" chickens. But choosing with those intentions takes the fun out of getting chicks.
With chicks purchased and placed in a chicken delivery box, pine shaving and chicken starter were placed in the back of the beep-beep whereupon the Kid and I received the oddest look from the attendant at the feed store. "You want all this in your car, ma'am?" Well, yeah, how do expect me to take it home? There have been far messier things in my car. Hello, I have a nine-year-old boy. Need I say more? Good grief! Nowhere in the Chicken101 manual does it state chicken owners must drive Ford F350 dually. Get out, they are just chickens for the love of pete. "Yes, please place them in the backseat. That would be great, thank you." Ye-haw, chickens! Now a cranky goat, a pack of mangy dogs, some scraggly barn cats, maybe a few stinky pigs and our 4-H tendencies will be complete. HaHa, not gonna happen. Ok, well maybe the goat. I have read again and again that they will eat poison ivy. Boy howdy do we have some poison ivy. Still trying to convenience the Planner on this idea though.
As with the majority of fun purchases, the purchase is the easy part. 10 one-week old chicks cannot live in a cardboard box for longer than a few minutes. They are pooping machines. Just look at this picture. Poop everywhere. Eeew.
Once at home, the real fun began with the creation of a temporary chicken home. First things first, a chicken warmer. According to everything read on the internet, chicks need heat. 100 degrees for the first few weeks, then 5 degrees less each week. Old school chick people still use heat lamps. New school chick people use heat pads. Both ideas are the same. Cold chicks move into the heat, hot chicks move out. They self-regulate. Many years ago, when the crazy dog was a puppy she was left outside in the winter with a red heat lamp in her plastic dog shed. To this day, I don't know what happened except I came home to a melted mass of smoldering plastic and a puppy sitting on the deck. So no, no heat lamps for me thank you kindly. Chicken dinners are fine. Baked chicks, not so much. Heating pads require more upfront planning and work but I hope the results work as well as stated on the internet. The steps were simple enough to prepare for chick usage and safety.
Step One: Wrap heat pad in an old blanket to keep clean.
Step Two: Encase heat pad and the old towel in Glad Press n' Seal. Not Saran Wrap and most definitely not generic.
This plastic wrap is the only thing keeping chick poo from the towel and heat pad. In order words, don't cheap out and buy the good stuff.
Being the heat pad cost more than the chicks themselves it was double wrapped. Extra protection never hurts.
Step Three: Once wrapped, be sure to neatly cut out the electrical port.
That's it. One chick heating pad prepared. Heating pads can be the run of the mill, two heat temperature choices, only available in auto-off, less than $10 model. Better options are the heating pads with several temperature control settings with a NEVER off option, costing between $30-$40. Like I said, the heat pad cost more than the chicks themselves. However, proper regulation of chick temp is important. Not even when the Kid was an infant was I up every two hours to feed and I am NOT starting now to check chick temps and turn on the heating pad again. Nope, not gonna happen. Hence the reason, the more expensive pad was purchased. Once turned on, it will stay on at desired temperature.
Next, in the chick home preparation process, the brooding box. There are so many options here. If you want other options, do like every other person does, Google it. I choose this method because 1) it could be easily cleaned out and 2) the chicks could be seen from all sides. Don't have to hover scaring the poo out of these little peeps in order to observe them.
Ventilation holes were cut into the lid. Some examples show cutting out the entire center section and screening with chicken wire. While this looks nice, the chicken wire must be screwed into the lid.
With the Kid helping in chick care, having sharp objects is not safe for both him and the chicks. Besides, using just drilled holes required less steps and no further materials. The final result looked nice and neat and symmetrical. Yes, it pleased the OCD.
When using a heating pad, the choices for chick warmth are placing in on the pine mulch or building a mini hoop house and placing it across the top. The second method, while requiring additional work, is a far better choice. Not only does it allow the chicks to sit on and under the heat pad, it provides a safe place to hide. These are week old peepers, they need to feel safe. And where would they be safe in a natural environment? Under their mother's bum. A mini hoop house is a close second to a warm fuzzy bum.
This by far was the most time consuming and frustrating part of building a temporary chick home. Hardware cloth holds it shape very well. Once cut, the hardware cloth wraps upon itself and takes some work to get it to keep it shape. Many of the chicken bloggers will say hardware cloth works great. Unless a the cloth is not rolled and comes flat from the store, I don't see how this step could be great.
Even after some modifications of cardboard and duct tape, the mini hoop house never did holds it desired form. Figuring these chicks are only in this home temporarily, a not perfect hoop house it will just have to be.
Another topic of great debate when it comes to the proper care of chicks is what to place for poop collection. There is newspaper, sand, pine flakes, pine shaving, dirt, and my favorite kitchen cabinet shelf liners. Newspaper is too slippery they say, will cause foot damage. Sand, if eaten, will cause damage. Pine shavings, if eaten, will cause damage or death. Dirt smells. Kitchen cabinet shelf liners need to be washed several times a day. Pine flakes seem to have to the lease amount of foot damage, is fairly poop absorbing, and is easy to clean up. Some use newspaper and flakes. Some use dirt and flakes. Never having raised chicks before, I am going for just flakes. Lots of them. If a chick chokes on a flake, maybe it is natures way of removing the weak.
Placing lots and lots of flakes in the tote, the mini (crooked) hoop house was situation and checked for stability. Seemed to hold up well to ample pressure placed on top. Then the heat pad was draped across. Note to self, make hoop house same size and heat pad ensuring a warm toasty environment. Oh well, maybe next time.
Next to last step are the water and food dishes. Once again, there are the old thinkers who use the above pictures. These feeders for water and food have been around since the dawn of chickens. They are USELESS. The water gets dirty from chicken feet and poop. The food gets dirty from chicken feet and poop. And both are messy, messy, messy. Messy feeders attraks bugs. Ick. Messy feeders stink. Double ick. Chickens stink enough, no need to add to the level of stink. Most importantly, messy feeders mean wasted food and water. However, neither of these methods will work for chicks in a tote.
New thinkers chose from a variety of options. Want options, Google it. I am just gonna tell you about what I chose and why. This water method requires the use of two bottles of the same size. There are standard water bottles bought in a 24 pack. One bottle is cut in half with a small square cut 1" above the bottom. With the second bottle filled, the half bottle is placed onto and securely pushed in place. Once flipped the half bottle will fill with water and then stop when the water line reaches the mouth of the second bottle.
For the feeder, just a top half of a bottle was used. The bottle needs to be large enough to allow the chicks to reach the bottom.
Both bottles were secured with string and duct tape to the sides of the tote. While not fancy, it allows for easy refilling by the Kid and is adjustable as the chicks grow. Water feeders should be at chick beak height and food feeder a little lower allowing chicks to reach in but not stand in.
Next and final step, add the chicks! Baby chicks are SO, SOO, SOOOOOOOO cute.
Can you believe I have lived 30+ years and have never once held a chick before? Chickens, yes. Ducks, unfortunately. Puppies and kittens, yes.
Baby flufferbottoms, nope. Not once. This was a very exciting moment for me. Oh, and the Kid too.
And let me tell you, the experience lived up to all of the hype I've ever heard. In the words of Despicable Me, chicks are "so fluffy!' They are puffs of feathers with beaks and feet. They don't weigh a thing and are easily squeezed. Each and every chick was transferred with great deals of love and gentleness.
Immediately upon transfer, all chicks ran to the safety of the heating pad bum. Glad I decided to go this route. Looking so small and fragile, I was instantly in love. I HEART chicks!!!
How can anyone not love a chick or two or ten? Just look at them!
It didn't take long for the chicks to discover the food and water feeders. Once-docile beings were now ravaged dinosaurs. There did not seem to be any hesitation in the transition from store feeders to home feeders.
Even the dog was smitten. She even forwent dinner in order to protect the chicks. Do believe these 10 chicks will be well taken care of with the dog, the Kid, and me. The Planner, not so much he says. Hmmph, I will believe it when I see it. How can you not love little puffy butts?
Seriously, tell me how? How can you not love them? Are you even looking at this cuteness? Baby chicks are just so damned cute. I went to the feed store to buy chicks because I had love to spare. Instead of sharing my love, my love only grew. Who knew. Ahh, the power of a little fluffy puff ball!
Let me end this love fest with this: I swear to you right now this very minute, that I am not, nor do I plan to be one of those crazy chicken ladies. Nope, not gonna happen. Those women are NUTS. But oh how easy it would be to become of those people. It's not like I created a meme or anything. Jesh.