I have baby chickens!

[agrinwithoutacat]

So, my mom (a school librarian) brought home baby chickens from work. A Pre-K classroom hatched them from eggs and they needed a good home. My mom has wanted chickens for a while now, so when no one else could take them she snatched them up. We have seven, and four more are on the way once they are out of intensive care (they have pneumonia). They're a week old. No idea if they're boys or girls yet, but once they're about 4-6 weeks old we'll be able to tell.

So far, everything is going well. You can kinda barely see it on the middle chick in the first picture, but they're starting to get their first set of real feathers! The yellow down is being replaced by white, mostly just on the wings right now. In a few more weeks they'll get their second set of feathers.

Right now they have to stay in the house, but in four more weeks we'll have a coop built for them and they'll be old enough to go outside.

So exciting!

[blueberrykiwi141]

awww they are sooo cute!! I wish I could have chickens ... :)

The pics are great!!

[chelperk]

I've had a couple of chicks before--they're so fun! When they got big, my dad ate their eggs. I hope the weather is good where you're at! :)

[circlette]

Awww fluffy little babies! My parents had chickens for a while but I recall them saying it was a lot of work. Hopefully you have better luck!

[agrinwithoutacat]

I've had a couple of chicks before--they're so fun! When they got big, my dad ate their eggs. I hope the weather is good where you're at! :)

I'm definitely looking forward to trying some fresh eggs! I've heard they're better than store-bought, and I like those plenty already. Maybe five to six more months and our girls will be ready to start laying. I think we'll have to keep any roosters separate, though, to avoid fertilizing the eggs. Not sure how we'll do that.

 

I'm in central Texas, so the weather is pretty reasonable most of the year. It gets hot in the summer, but the winters don't get very brutal. Many chickens can handle cold down to something like -20F, so that shouldn't be a problem. It gets hot in the summer here, though, so we'll have to have good ventilation in the coop to make sure they don't overheat. I've read tips like feeding them frozen watermelon and adding ice to their water, or having a mister if it's not already too humid. We'll figure that out in a few months when the time comes, I guess. Hopefully this year isn't like last year, where we had something like 100 days that were over 100 degrees. Not in a row, thankfully, but it's still way higher than the average. Winter was cold this year, so hopefully summer is cool as well.

 

Awww fluffy little babies! My parents had chickens for a while but I recall them saying it was a lot of work. Hopefully you have better luck!

It is a bit of work. Right now we're changing out the wood shavings twice a day, and changing their food and water daily. Also, when they're this young (it's a little gross, sorry) you actually have to check their butts for dried poop. It can block them up and then they'll die. They're doing good on that front, though, so far. I'm sure cleaning up after them will get harder as they get bigger, but right now it's not too bad.

[Deltacow]

Meh Likes CHICKENS as you can see on my profile in the likes section I wish I could have a pet chicken;)

[chelperk]

Fresh eggs are neat! You can tell they're super fresh because the yolk pops up like a golf ball VS store egg yolks just sit there like MEH. I used to live in Houston TX so I know about that heat! My friend had a farm around there and had chickens that did ok, but I didn't ask about how they beat the heat.

[Nubisbully]

That's so fun! I've had chickens for years in Wv, Vermont and Pa. They stand up to Vermont winters fine so yours should do well. After having fresh eggs, it'll be hard to go back! At our largest, we had over 50 chickens of every size and color. We had so many that we had to feed them to the dogs. A few of our larger chickens even laid double yolks! You'll probably know before they're mature, which are males when the lights come on or sun comes up. They're very vocal from a young age, even at random times :rolleyes_anim:

 

You don't have to keep the males separate unless you really want to or have religious reasons. Fertilized eggs are no different unless someone is brooding (sitting on them.) You also don't have to refrigerate fresh eggs as long as you roll them every day. That's how they were kept in the days before refrigeration.

 

 

 

Do you know what type of chicken they are? If they're broilers (not to be gross, I'm a vegetarian anyway) then they probably won't brood and might not lay well. I can't wait until next year when my little guy is bigger so we can try to start a new flock. Good luck, they look great, healthy and happy baby birds! :)

[Shelley]

AWWWW that just made my day! I love baby chicks :D we were thinking of getting some chickens, we have a huge chunk of land in upstate NY, right on the border of vermont. My mom used to live on a farm so she knows a bit about keeping chickens. We just don't know how we're going to keep them. I don't know how we would keep them away from the foxes or how they would survive in the winter :/ I still want some though, fresh eggs, YUM!

[agrinwithoutacat]

You don't have to keep the males separate unless you really want to or have religious reasons. Fertilized eggs are no different unless someone is brooding (sitting on them.) You also don't have to refrigerate fresh eggs as long as you roll them every day. That's how they were kept in the days before refrigeration.

 

 

 

Do you know what type of chicken they are? If they're broilers (not to be gross, I'm a vegetarian anyway) then they probably won't brood and might not lay well. I can't wait until next year when my little guy is bigger so we can try to start a new flock. Good luck, they look great, healthy and happy baby birds! :)

Oh good, so we don't have to separate them as long as we take the eggs out? That makes things a lot easier!

 

I don't know for certain what type of chickens they are, but someone has suggested that they may be leghorns. They appear to be growing white feathers, in any case.

[Tsalagi_Phoenix]

They are so cute! I would love to have chickens one day and so would my mom. Where we live right now might not be the place area though so we'll probably wait until we have the money to move someplace and then get chickens.

[spookydana]

I cant wait until I have my own house so I can have chickens too :)

[juststoppingby]

Dawww! Those are ADORABLE! :3

I remember when my teacher brought a bunch of baby ducks she found on the road to school several years ago! Holding something so small and fluffy in my hands was one of the best feelings!

[dawnshine]

Very cool. We've had chickens in the past but when it comes to livestock we've shifted primarily to buffalo and deer out here. I have been begging for either chickens, pheasants, or quail lately though when it comes to our feathery friends. While I'm sure one will eventually win out, depending on what we can create suitable habitat for, I am also pushing for us to start beekeeping. I am excited.

 

Congrats on your new endeavors. Chickens are very rewarding!

[agrinwithoutacat]

WEEK 2 UPDATE: They're definitely getting real feathers! Now it's mostly just the head and neck that are still yellow. Look at those cute tailfeathers! Also, I swear they must be almost twice as big as they were when we got them. We had to expand their box into a little chicken condo, and they'll need more space soon.

The lantern is a nightlight type thing so they have light on the far side of the box (the light from the heat lamp doesn't go that far). I don't know that they need it, but I think it's because my mom wants to be sure they can reach the food/water at night.