they come from the east , they come from the west..

Our chickens enjoy the company of people . (maybe because they always bring treats? ) The other day we had another visitor. Cole flew all the way from San Francisco to visit his favorite chicken Lovey.
Lovey started out as a skinny chick , pushed around by the others. She has now grown up to become quite a handful. I already had to clip her wings because she was escaping out of the chicken run. She is tall but leaner than the others and can run faster. She is a little bit of a rebel not unlike her handler Cole.

eggs R us

and finally all the hard labor is starting to pay off. Two of the chickens ( they are close to fully grown now) have started to lay eggs. The first couple of eggs a chicken lays are usually very small with a soft shell. No good for human consumption and they normally brake when the chickens step on them. Then they start laying little eggs, about halve the size of the eggs we find in the grocery store. After about a week the eggs get bigger , after 2 weeks they are regular size. I did a little spying and found out that Spot was the first producer, followed by Chici. So we now have one large and one small egg per day. Can't wait till the others start laying too. Farmers Market here we come.

pics of chicks

While I am still working on the final version of the chicken run , the chicks have been busy growing up. They wake up as soon as the sun comes up and stay in the coop till about 7.00 am . Then the door opens up for a day in the garden. They eat a little , play a little , take a nap and repeat until dusk. They might visit the coop a couple of times a day for some food ( their feeder remains inside the coop to keep away other birds) and to lay an egg. When the sun goes down , they go inside and rest on their roosting pole. The doors closes automatically to keep predators out.
It's a hard life.

moving the coop in place

Now that the coop was finished it needed a good coat of paint to protect it from the elements. We asked a close friend and artist, Peggy Turley, to give us some color patterns that would be unusual for a chicken coop but attractive to visiting children. After some trial and error, the coop became one of the most colorful buildings in Memphis. It was now time to move the coop to the outdoors.Easier said that done. We estimated that we had constructed an 800 lbs structure. We would need a least 8 strong man to successfully move this thing. Because I could not come up with a list of 8 strong friends ( no offense) I decided to follow the old country saying: " Do not do yourself what you can have done by a machine" . I remembered that our friend and neighbor, Steve Schwartz, had a Bobcat forklift that would have no problems with this project. Finally the Chick Mahal was in place.

THE MAKING OF THE COOP

With 6 chicks in the brooder box we had to start thinking about a permanent outdoor coop and run.
The internet is a great source for inspiration and it did not take long to come up with a good design. One minor problem was the fact that we had no plans ( ie dimensions) just some pictures of things we liked. I engaged my friend Damien and we spent 2 days building a coop that should make even the pickiest birds happy. We installed a window to allow some crossbreeze and light during the day. A nesting box is attached to the house which allows access to the nests ( = eggs) without having to go into the run or the coop itself. One of the biggest chores for a chick fancier is the fact that you have to open and close the coop door at certain times. To avoid this routine we installed an automatic door that works on a timer. By the time we finished our project, we had created deluxe accommodations for at least 20 chickens and the coop was so heavy that we couldn't move it outdoors.

chicks have a visitor

Last Friday Shea came to visit his chick " Bob ". The chicks are getting bigger and some of them really like people. Shea took Bob and Patch for a stroll. It was actually the first time they had been outside the brooder box.

chicks are growing well

our chicks are 4 weeks old and they are starting to change . Their fussy plumage is changing into feathers and they are now looking like small chickens. Different personalities are developing also.
Henrietta has a beautiful buff coat but is very squared of people. Lovely is the smallest of them all. Her coat has not come in fully but I think she will be a mixture of buff and brown. Bob and Chicky are the most industrious. Always running around and scratching for food. Peckerina and Patch are the most people friendly. They like to be tickled and are easy to handle.

the brooder box

The first 5 weeks of their lives , the chick have to be well cared for and protected against cold and predators. The best way to do this is to raise them in a brooder box inside a garage , warehouse or other protected area. Our chicks have a large brooder box so they can play around.This prevents them from fighting with each other.The brooder box has a red heatlamp to keep the chicks warm, a waterer and a feeder ( they are allowed to eat as much as they want) and some straw on the bottom .

last chick has a name

Thanks to Daniel , our last chick has a name . We will call her Patch.

All chicks are doing very well and growing fast. Once in while we have a little fight but that is normal . They are eating and drinking a lot more than during the first week. Most of the feathers are starting to grow and I expect them to fly next week.

last chick to be named soon....

This poor chick still has no name. But Daniel is working on it

our youngest chicken friend...

Jake is barely 2 years old but already a great chicken fan. ( Specially in nugget form) He decide the call his chick " Chickie" . Well that will make it very easy to remember. Jake, come visit your pal soon because , just like you , these chicks are growing up fast.

and here is Bob...

I am sure the other chicks are going to call her Bobbie or Bobbette but Shea insisted on calling her Bob. This one seems to eat less but drink more than the other birds. I am not sure what that is going to lead to. ( Watery eggs ? ) Answer in a couple of months when they start laying.

A Lady chicken...

Some chickens are roosters and some chickens are hens . Very few are Ladies ( because pooping everywhere is not very lady like). This little princess is named Henrietta by Avery. It is going to be a match made in heaven. She is very well behaved , soft spoken and gets along with all the other chicks. I have just one question , should we call her Lady Henrietta or Princess Henrietta?
Avery better get back to me quickly.

Dylan's choice.....

May I introduce Peckerina adopted by Dylan.
A very good name for one of the chicks high on the pecking order. Not afraid of anything and always interested in new things to learn. Hopefully she'll be just as good at laying eggs as she is at bossing everyone around.

names are coming in.....

we have received our first names for our new chicks. Cole has adopted "lovey" a beautiful light brown chick , very sweet but with a mind of her own. This is a picture of Lovey when she is 1 week old. Quite a little lady already.

the box arrived....

This morning the mail man came a little earlier than usual. He had a nice little box for me with 8 baby chicks. Everyone arrived in good condition and were happy to get out of the little box in their new home. The first 5 weeks our friends will live in a brooder, a temporary house until they can go outside in the real chicken coop. The brooder has a lamp to heat the little fellows, a feeder with special food and a water container.

Help needed....

Unlike our garden project which we basically tackled with no real knowledge of horticulture, the chicken project needed some research because we are dealing with live animals. It is our responsibility to give these birds a happy, healthy place to live.
On the Internet I learned that we would need 2 different places to raise the chickens. The first 5 weeks we keep the chicks inside a warm place with a heat lamp and plenty of food and water. They grow really fast and need a lot of attention. The more interaction with people they have during this period, the more docile they will be later. I will keep the chicks in my warehouse in a large cardboard box with pine shavings on the bottom. After 5 weeks they are almost full grown and can move to their permanent house, the chicken coop. Here again was the Internet the solution. I looked at about 50 different designs and models and decided to build my own coop with the best features I had found. But I am not a carpenter... so I called my friend Damien to see if he could help. In the mean time , I also realized that I would need some help with feeding the chickens . So I talked to some of my friends and they promised me that they would be there if I needed them.Well this should do it ... I will make the brooder box , Damien will help me build the coop, I have some friends to help with the feeding .... I think I am prepared except for .... naming the chicks !!! Because I am going to be very busy during the next couple of weeks I am going to ask a couple of special friends of mine if they each could name a chicken. So Avery, Cole, Dylan, Daniel, Jake , Shea and Zak, please send me your favorite chicken name and you will have a chicken friend that you can come visit and play with. Don't forget, all our chickens are going to be girls .... no boy names..

How it all began...

Last year we had the idea to start a little vegetable garden in a vacant lot next to my office building. We build 12 raised beds, filled them with soil , planted some seeds and waited for vegetables and flowers to appear. Although we were new at gardening some plants did very well ( we had a 9 ft tall sun flower) others did not so good. After talking the some seasoned gardeners, we found out we needed to fertilize our plants during the growing season (which we totally neglected).The best way to keep your plants happy and the vegetable big, is to fertilize the old fashioned , organic way using chicken manure.
And that is were we hatched our second idea, let's build a chicken coop , keep some chickens, enjoy the fresh eggs and produce our own fertilizer.
We have learned quite a bit about gardening last year, this year we are going to try to master the art of keeping chickens.