New Chicken Parents
A couple weeks old, still living in their brooder which has a red light to keep them warm.
3 wks old. They love their new home.
They make a mess with the water and the food everyday.
Their fancy coop all lit up at night which we've learned not to do because the chickens won't go to bed if it's not dark. The lights are now for visitors on special occasions only. Live and learn.
Last year I decided to try something new with my preschoolers, hatching chickens. My friends at Rover School had posted about it and the kids loved it. I went over to Rover and got all the information on how to do this project in my classroom. When I first told my husband about the chicks and keeping the chickens he quickly said, "We don't need chickens." Our neighbors have chickens and we are blessed that they occasionally bring us some eggs. They taste completely different than the grocery store eggs. So we hatched 3 out of 6 chickens around Easter time and my husband fell in love with the chicks. We had already scheduled for the chicks to go live at Rhiba Farms when they were old enough to leave the brooder. We decided next year though we will keep the chicks. Instead of having our birthday trip, we will spend the money on setting a coop for the chickens. We started in January when it's much cooler in Arizona. We moved all the rocks to the other side of the yard. Then we ordered a coop and run on Amazon that my husband was so excited to put together. Then we visited other people's coops, checked out the AZ Worm Farm, and of course Rhiba Farms coops. Talked and shopped trying to figure out how we wanted to enclose this area including chicken wiring a roof to keep our chickens safe from predators. We live near South Mountain and do see coyotes in our area quite a bit. Plus the neighborhood cats and our own dogs. We decided to go with a wooden frame over the top of our concreate bricks that would allow us to roll the wire over and staple to the wood. The gate was something else. We ordered a wire gate from Home Depot and cemented the poles in and waited for them to dry. Then putting in the gate hinging up the correct way. It was amazing how we did all this ourselves. My husband did most of the physical work and I was the assistant. For the ground cover, we went to AZ Worm Farm and bought several bags of mulch to cool the ground. It turned out better than we could've imagined. Of course so excited to have chickens and reading articles about chickens needing toys for entertainment so they don't peck each other or the wire fire, I went on Amazon and ordered a swing (every chicken needs a swing), a xylophone, a bell and a hanging rod for fruits or vegetable to peck at. I'm a little excited. Just a little. After spring break I picked up 6 chicken eggs. At school we watched over them in the incubator waiting for the 21st day to finally come. They were due Easter day, how perfect. My family came over for Easter and one hatched while the family was able to watch. My mom named that one Darcy. One egg we were worried because it had tried to hatch, had a hole but had stopped moving. Darcy cuddled up to the egg and cheapped until 24hrs later, blood all over the incubator, Miracle (I named her) was born. That night we were blessed with two more chicks that I let the preschoolers name the next day. My students loved having the chicks at school, but we knew they were getting older and at 3 weeks were going to move into their new home. The kids missed the chicks but I showed them pictures of the chickens and their new home. They were happy for the chicks. We've added things such as a roost, that my husband built when our friends who own chickens told us they like to get up high. They need a roost. They love it. We also added a haystack for hours of chicken pecking fun. My schedule has changed a little now, but I couldn't be happier. I used to get up at 6:30 to walk the dogs. Now I naturally get up at 6:00 and take care of the chickens. I change their water and food. I clean out their coop that's full of poop from where they sleep. I enjoy every moment of being with the chickens. Then it's dog walk time. We both are loving being chicken parents. Right now we are working on training them to go into their coop at night when it's get dark instead of huddling up in a corner by the wall. I've been reading about light training so last night I put a flashlight inside the coop around dusk and when it was dark I went out to check on them and they were all in their house by the light pecking at it. Turned the flashlight off and they were set for the night. Tonight, we've bought these light sensor night lights to try in their coop. Hopefully the light will come on and they will go in their house. It's been so much fun learning how to take care of chickens. We are definately proud chicken parents. Here is a fun short of the chickens and their new roost. Thank you to my husband for his building skills and video skills.
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