Chicks Graduated to the Big House

My April babies grew up so fast!!

Remember these little guys that were living on my back porch in April?
Well, they grew up fast and left lots of down all over the porch and started flying out of their little room. They have been moved to the brooder coop and they’re loving it.

The brooder coop is 36 inches deep, 36 inches high and 72 inches long. It’s heated when it needs to be and it’s shaded to keep them cool during really hot weather. The wooden contraption in the front is for them to roost on is they choose but at the rate they’re growing only five of the ten can fit on it at one time. They have good airflow underneath the coop. I keep one end full of chips for warmth and bedding but they tend to scratch it out daily.

When we moved them outdoors, they still had lots of down around their heads and looked just a little strange. Since then, they’re completely feathered out now and not as skittish as they were on the porch.

This little gal is a Brahma hen, and one characteristic of this breed is the feathered feet. They are well adapted to colder climates beautiful full-grown birds. This has some growing to do.

When they’re in the brooder coop, I keep three water bottles in the coop with them with fresh water each morning. They have two-quart feeder and one-half gallon which have to be filled about every other day. I give them fresh pulled clover and seeded grasses a couple times a day. They are well cared for and will graduate to the big hen house in a couple months and start laying in the winter.

Well, they graduated to the big hen house and a couple have started to lay eggs. They’re all beautiful hens but sure wish they would start laying daily because I could use those 10 eggs a day. This is baking season and I WILL NOT buy eggs from the store. This is two of my ten pullets; left is the Golden Brahma and right is the Americauna which lays green eggs. The Brahma lays very large brown eggs. I have two Brahma’s laying and this Americauna was laying large green eggs but stopped laying when the cold weather moved in and that’s not normal for them. I think she may be laying out on the farm somewhere, so I didn’t let them out of the henhouse for two days, made sure they had water, feed and greens but still no green eggs. I’m getting impatient!!!

Love the chickens and the beautiful eggs they give us.