One week old!

All 19 chickens are still alive and growing one week later!  The layers and broilers were separated after 5 days as the broilers were pooping everywhere and twice the size already.  It's true that all they do is eat, sleep and poop.  I have been taking their food away for 8 hours at night, and in the morning they are ravenous.  3 broilers are sneezing occasionally and look like their eyes are goopy, but everyone else is doing okay.  I'm wondering if that's just because they are close to the bedding all the time and haven't gotten fresh air.  My hope is to get them outside this weekend a little bit when it warms up.  I have added vitamins to their water and none of them seem to be lacking energy or not eating. 

The layers are so much cuter.  They're wing and tail feathers are developing and I'm excited to see the new colors.  The layers have had no health issues, they have been living in the dark, but the top of the box is open and they run around all day and duck under the brooder when needed.  I added a roosting stick to the box last night, only the leghorn had it figured out.  Those leghorns do develop quickly! 

Two Welsummers.  The one on bottom's wings are not developed at all like Her two SISTERS.  I'm hoping they're all sisters!

The layers are still using the nipple waterer, they prefer it over the jar waterer I also have in the box. 

Early Maturing

I have read that Leghorns, along with being the best egg producers, mature very fast.  The Leghorn, Esther, has proven this as she's the first one to sprout tail feathers at only 2 days old.  I realize when I took the cast pictures I had a dinner chicken instead of Esther for a photo, so here she is. 

It is very easy to tell the dinner chickens and the two yellow layer chicks apart now.  They are almost double the size!  I'll have to split them up soon as the dinner chickens will have to start rationing their food.  Hopefully tomorrow our outdoor pen for them will get done. 

All the chicks are doing well, one dinner chicken was sneezing some tonight but I looked at her nose and listened to her breathing and she seemed fine.  They figured out how to use the nipple waterer all by themselves!  They are so smart! 

Meet the Cast of Season Three

19 new chickens arrived yesterday morning!  Oldest and I picked them up from the feed store before school, we were the first ones there and got the first chicks out of the (many) boxes!  So far, so good.  I am so happy with these chicks.  I again got them from Townline Hatchery and was excited to see they got a new breed for 2014!   The Welsummer is only available in straight run, so I got three hoping for one hen.  Although, my luck I will get three boys.  One of the "Welsummers" looks nothing like the others and not like any of the pictures of the breed online.  I have a feeling Marty may have grabbed the wrong chick?  Or it's a rooster.  Either way, I'm excited to see how it turns out. 
Adding to the excitement this season are meat chickens.  I ordered 10 Cornish Cross which I am planning on using the pasteurized method to raise.  So far they are always at the feed and drinker, but I guess that's their job. 
I'm also excited to use my EcoBrooder this year.  When I set it up I thought  there was no way the chickens would fit underneath it because it sits so low to the floor, but they actually have to stand on their toes to reach the heat!  I added a towel last night and that made them much more comfortable.  They have started jumping on the top of it, which means it's being used right! 

And now, without further ado, here are the Layers!

One of the Aruacanas.  Either E.T. or Downy

Rhode Island Red

Ginger

Welsummer 1: Ramona

Welsummer 2: Beezus

This could be a White Leghorn named Esther or a Cornish Cross named dinner.

Mystery Chick that's supposed to be a Welsummer

Kip

Amber Link named Gypsy

Australorp named Matilda.  She looks sad but she's really cute and calm. 

Easter Eggs with Brown Eggs

My Mother was concerned I couldn't hard boil or color my brown eggs to hide/dye for Easter.  I told her I boil them all the time, but have never tried coloring them before.  She bought some supermarket eggs in case mind didn't work, and we did a comparison. 

Brown Eggs

White Eggs

We used the same methods, the cheapest PAAS kit with the dots dissolved in vinegar/water.   I think the brown eggs look way better.  They are a richer, truer color and they are not as streaky as the white eggs are.  I know a lot of people do the natural dyes with cabbage or spinach or whatever.  I don't need to do that.  I am okay with using the store-bought dyes on my fresh eggs. 

PVC Waterer

Along with getting new chicks next week, I installed an automatic PVC chicken waterer last week before I left for a couple days on Spring Break.  I got the plans from various sites and modified them to fit my needs. I then had my boss make it for me while we were working.   I'm really happy with how it turned out, although it does leak in one spot where the pipe connects to the bucket.  I think I can fix that with a little bit of silicone but now everything's frozen again and I have to wait for the bucket to empty and it to warm up a little. 

So far the chickens understand how to drink, I don't know that they prefer it to a standard drinker, but I've had both in the run because it is still in the 20's in the morning so the nipples freeze up easily.  They seem really happy when they drink from the bucket and attack the nipples angrily, but that could just be my weird take on things. 

Monthly update for March

There has been nothing done in the garden since October.  We still have so much snow and I can't even walk out to the garden. 
The chickens laid 175 eggs last month, which is an average of 5.7 a day!   Toward the end of March they slowed down a little, I got 5 eggs for the last 4 days and 4 eggs the last day.  The last 2 days I've gotten 5 and yesterday 4.  I don't know why they're slowing down, maybe their age?  I'm excited to get new chicks in a couple weeks. 

The chickens did spend a couple days outside in the snow/sunshine and I planted some seeds indoors to speed things along when it finally thaws.