Charmed Life Chickens in Action

Just had to share this video of some of my birds, doing their thing in the chicken yard. My toddler and I took out some kitchen scraps and enjoyed watching them for a few minutes. We were talked into sharing our granola bar and banana by the very sweet and persuasive Roo, Malcolm. It's so hard to turn him down because every bite he gets or finds, he shares with his ladies.

The soft clucking you hear from him when my son throws down the granola bar is his call to the hens, letting them know he has foraged up some grub for them.  In this way, a feedback loop gets established--a good rooster teaches the hens that when he calls them, there is always something good to eat to share, and this means that when he calls them for other reasons (like when he thinks they are too close to other rooster's pen, or when he wishes to gather them for a free ranging forage run, or when he tells them to come to him because a hawk is flying over or a dog is nearby) he is likely to have them listen and come running. 

I love watching my birds interact with an eye to how evolution has shaped their behaviors.  In this case, the behavior of a "good" roo is such that his generosity with food and protection increase his likelihood of passing on his genes, by making the hens trust him and want to stay nearby, thus increasing his chances of access and success in mating.  A bad roo?  One who doesn't share consistently runs the risk of having hens that don't learn to come when he calls.  One who hurts the hens by being too rough or doesn't spend the time necessary to build trust, in my experience, has hens that do not stay close to him and in fact often attempt to put distance between him and themselves.  This increases their likelihood of being predated or mated with by lesser roosters who may exploit access to hens not in a tight harem near the roo.

Malcolm (which, ironically, means "Dove) is a joy to keep.  We have a mutual respect that I take care to preserve, and we've become friends over a long period of time.  I truly value his work in keeping my egg-layers and mothers safe, well-fed, and happy. He is exceptional with young chicks, never trying to kill them as many roos will.  He even tolerates an underling roo in the pen with him.  I kept the best cockerel (young roo) from his offspring last Fall, and Merle ("Blackbird") is coming along, learning from his father.  Because he is in the pen with Malcolm and his mothers and aunts, he seems to be learning how to be respectful and humble--something I require from my roos if they are to make the cut and be allowed to breed.

Schoolyard Chickens Project--Setting Up a Brooder for Chicks

We're down to 20 chicks in the Montessori class, but at one week of age they are getting bigger quickly!  I just switched them over from a 37-gallon aquarium into a gigantic Rubbermaid container (the one we usually use for all our camping equipment).  I'm getting a little concerned that they may fly out of it soon, though.  All this leads me to believe we need to set up a roomier brooder in the classroom this weekend.

Makeshift brooder from Charity at Chicken Moon Farm

This is a great example of what we could do.  My friend Charity Lewis, owner of Chicken Moon Farm is a great inspiration to me.  Charity raises chickens and bees and sells sustainably raised meat, eggs, and honey. She also leads a variety of workshops on topics dear to the eco-friendly heart, like water stewardship, permaculture, and mobile chicken coop building--more on that last one in a separate post!  Charity ordered her chicks to arrive just a few days before ours hatched, and her makeshift brooder is just a great idea.  I did something similar last hatch, but didn't get any pics...so I'm grateful she posted some.  She has taped together several large pieces of cardboard to make a nice stand-alone brooder that her chicks can stay in until they are ready to be moved to the coop (around 5 weeks).  She has many many more chicks than we do, so we wouldn't need one quite this size.  12 square feet of floor space--for example, a 4' x 3' box-- would be adequate for our needs until the chicks "grow out" their outside feathers.

Extremely large boxes are rare, but fairly big ones are often readily available.  The basic process to make a large brooder from a huge box is easy--just set it up!  And if we could do that, I'd be delighted to just need to cut down the sides a bit for ease of care.  But what's more likely is that we'll get several fairly large boxes, and go from there.  Here's what I did last time. 1) gathered supplies--the biggest boxes I had, tape, box cutter.  2) took the first box and cut down two corners so that one wall fell down, still connected at the base, and became a floor piece for the next box.  3) did this a few times with a few boxes, until I had the size I needed.  I used three boxes, so on the middle box I cut down TWO of the side walls, on opposite sides of the box, allowing it to be the middle "car" in the box train.  Again the two side walls then laid flat and became a part of the floor for the brooder.

Do you have a large empty cardboard box at home, perhaps in the garage, waiting for recycling?  Or perhaps you know someone who just got a new TV or refrigerator?  If so, we can gather those supplies and a BUNCH of duct tape and a sturdy dowel, as shown, and create a safe and roomy home for the classroom chicks.  If your child is in the Elementary classroom, please let his or her teacher know you have a box or would like to help put together the brooder--or comment here.  I plan to be at the Montessori school this weekend working on this project, so just let me know if you can help out. 

Chicken Math--Read This If You Want to Adopt a Montessori Chick

Just a quick post that I will keep updated with regard to the chicks we have and who wants what.

We have 23 chicks that hatched.  I will keep 6 chicks for the Montessori school (this assumes ~50% will be roosters, and they'd like to keep and raise 3-4 hens if I understand the plan correctly).  I will keep 6 chicks for my family.  And 3 have been spoken for already.  That brings us down to 8 chicks available for adoption.  Several children have stopped me to assure me they are definitely taking some home soon, and a couple of parents have let me know they are considering it.

Chicks are $3 each and I am happy to help with any questions you may have about getting them started.  Many of the links found here, and my posts, have invaluable information on this process.

Let me encourage you to communicate with me asap if you do know you want to place dibs on chicks.  Commenting here would be best!

Thanks so much!

Schoolyard Chickens--Baby Chicks R Us!

Today I visited the baby chicks in the classroom to feed, water, and do some basic record keeping on them, and got some pics while I was there.

Boy, are they cute! I wonder how the teachers are able to keep the kids from staying near the chicks all day! I haven't had blonde chicks before, so I'm especially enamored with their fluffy sweetness.

The chicks were ready for a "big chick" waterer, and I put in an extra just to be sure they have plenty of hydration.  The water looks slightly orange, as I've mixed in an electrolyte/vitamin powder just to help them get a healthy start in life. In particular, sometimes chicks have some leg problems--splay leg and spraddle leg are the common names--that the proper vitamin supplement can really help alleviate.  I took one chick home a few days ago who couldn't stand, and banded her legs close together to allow her to stand and use them.  That plus the extra vitamins, and she seems to be making a a full recovery.

(Left) Chick with spraddle leg (Right) Normal chick

I had my oldest and youngest children with me today, so I enlisted help from my teen and toddler to get some action pics as we observed and collected data on each bird.

 











I was collecting data on three things--feathered/unfeathered feet, pea/straight comb, and general size.  I can already tell what chicks are carrying the gene for blue eggs (meaning they may produce blue, blue-green, or any other shade of green, like olive) and which are not (and in this group of chicks, a single/straight comb means the bird will lay a brown egg, very very likely a DARK brown egg).


It was nice to get a look at each chick for other reasons.  You can tell a lot about the healthy and vitality of a chick by simply handling it and seeing how it physically responds, how its eyes look, how alert and active it is, and how its feathers are coming in.



I was also checking each chick's vent (the multi-purpose orifice on their bottoms) to make sure no one was "pasting up".  As unpleasant as it sounds, a little poop can stick there and attract more and more until a hard mass can actually obstruct the vent, which means the chick can't poop and can get very ill or die.  It's not extremely common, and if a mother hen was raising them she would take care of it before a problem arose.  Today we had one chick with the problem and I took the time to make sure it was nice and clean before leaving.  I'll keep a close eye on that one, and I may add some dry oatmeal to their feed as it helps avoid having the problem altogether.

I spoke with a couple parents today who said they were enjoying looking at the blog with their children at home--I'm delighted to hear that!  I hope this blog will provide many opportunities for children to bring home what they are learning and share their experiences with their families.  Every child has a favorite chick and I'm trying to make sure I get pics of all of them.  Some parents have also shared that they are considering getting chicks.  If you have questions about that, let me know!  Commenting here is the best way to make sure I see and respond to you.  You can also get my email address from your child's teacher.

Schoolyard Chickens--Talking Turkey (and Chicken!) with the Elementary Classroom

What fun we had yesterday in my daughter's classroom! The kids had really done their homework in learning all about birds and their development. We took a few videos of our conversation, but I don't want to post them here as we use a lot of the kids' names. I would love to share with you parents! I'm working on getting this put up in a private way so that only families can see the videos...will let you know what I figure out!

The kids had some really great questions and were able to approach the incubator three at a time to see two chicks zipping and hatching. I appreciated their patience! It was very hard to wait but they did a great job.

I brought the chicks home for the night in their incubator, as several eggs had not yet hatched. Once here, all but one of those eggs hatched throughout the evening and in the night. Our total was 23 healthy chicks born out of 24 eggs hatched! Here is one of those born in the evening...

I can't say enough good things about that new Brinsea incubator-- it made hatching so easy and with this kind of hatch rate I now understand why so many people swear by it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Schoolyard Chickens Update--22 Eggs Hatched

Just a quick update! 22 babies!  Well, actually 21. I am watching the 22nd zipping right now and hope to go to bed before she finishes, so I am being optimistic.

What an amazing hatch! I have never had such a successful rate of return on the time and energy intensive incubation process.

It has been a very long day, and I have a bunch of pics and videos to share, but I'll just post a few here and it's off to bed for now.

 I so enjoyed speaking to the kids at the school today; I hope they came home positively brimming with excitement and questions! They are so smart and so much fun to learn with.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hatching!

Tuesday 8:20 am Our third chick, the first to hatch from the FCBM Gypsy's eggs, has just joined us!  It was the first to pip yesterday, and quickly jumped out of the egg as soon as it finally zipped completely.  It's quite big, like the egg it came from.  It has feathered feet like mama!

7:30 am It's been a busy hour! By 6:45 our first baby, from a blue-green egg, was working its way out of the shell. It was "born" right at 7 am, and a second hatchling, from the same mother, zipped its shell off within about 15 minutes. Right now I am drinking my coffee to the sweet and very persistant peeping of two cute chicks that are alternately struggling and resting, letting the warmth of the incubator fan fluff them up.The first EE born is mostly black, with a blackbeak.  The second is gold, with a pink beak. My two year old is over the moon about the birds!

After several hatches, my teen is not super excited about hatching chicks anymore--however, he does like to be funny.