Fixing Up the Place

I decided that it would be cool to fix up the place a little bit. Who wants a boring coop, right?I am glad that Tim decided to go along with my crazy ideas. 

Every coop needs to have a home sweet home sign in it. 

It also needs to have a family pic hanging in it! 

I never thought I would have so much fun with this chicken coop. I love trying to come up with ways to decorate it. I'm sure I will be adding many more

First night in the Coop!

The chicks spent their first night in the coop on Friday, 7/17. They were very scared at first. So scared that we could hear them chirping when we were standing at the back door in our house. We ended up stringing a strand of Christmas lights in the coop and it seemed to settle them down. They do not like the dark. Tim went out the next morning and opened the pop door (the little door to the coop) and they came running out all excited. I think they are really going to like the coop/run area.

Avery is still scared of the chickens. She does not like them near her feet. When we go in the coop, they come right over to us, thinking we have treats. Besides live worms that we dig up, their favorite treat right now is grapes. Theyl ike them even more than the dried mealworms. It is so cute to watch them chase each other around

I painted a sign for the outside of the coop. I think it turned out pretty well. I also wanted to include the chickens' names. As we get more chickens, we can add their names to the sign. Chicken math is real people..chickens are addicting.
Here is a little about chicken math..
http://www.homeontheroost.com/chicken-math/

Outline of the coop sign

How cute are they?

They look like they are in a police lineup. They are always up to something.

 

Fluffy is looking a little rough in this picture but she seems to be the one growing the fastest. I thought she had an infection on face, below her beak but then I realized its probably her wattles that are started to form. (It's hard to see in this picture)

 

Avery likes the chickens from a distance, when they aren't near her feet

Me with the chicks. They are getting so big!

Fluffy is trying to show you her wing span. They now love to jump and try to fly.

Tim with the ladies.

Painting their names

The finished sign hung up :)

 

Tim made this feeder out of PVC pipes

 Notice the Christmas lights? We are currently using pine shavings because we have them leftover from when the chickens were in the brooder (little tote) but I think we will be switching to sand. I heard a lot of good things about sand in a coop.

 

I love our coop! My niece said it best. She said I wouldn't be able to have this without Uncle Tim because he is so handy. She is absolutely correct. Thanks Tim!

 

 

 

 

 

The Early Bird(chicken) Gets the Worm

The chickens are getting so big so fast. They are now 5 weeks old. Besides a few finishing touches, Tim is done with the coop. We ended up placing the chickens in the coop while we cleaned their plastic tote out. They were a little scared at first but seemed ok. Then the next day we put them in the coop for a few hours. They are getting more and more comfortable in there and they really seem to enjoy it. They loved it when Tim turned over some dirt with a shovel, exposing worms and bugs. They went nuts. One would grab a worm and run and the others would chase after the one with the worm. They were really fun to watch.

They aren’t really scared of us anymore and will walk right up to us. They still aren’t thrilled when they are picked up but we will get there some day. I went into the coop the other day with flip flops on and Avery thought it was hilarious that they were pecking at my feet. She didn’t find it funny when she was standing there and they started coming up to her though.

Next post I will try to get some pictures of the finished coop. 

We have already made a few modifications to the coop. We hung a bottle of hand sanitizer up because they are salmonella machines and we ended up placing a lock on the inside of the coop door. The reason for this is because when you walk in the coop, the door swings open a bit and we are scared the dogs will open the door and come in. We wanted to make sure the door stays closed when we are in the coop.

 Speaking of dogs, Chewie is now the one I am scared of with the chickens. He didn’t care about them when they were in the tote upstairs but when they are in the coop, he whines and scratches at the door and tries to pull it open with his claws. I am trying to praise them when they are sitting there being good. They love watching them. They are so happy, they are smiling…see! This is how they look when they watch the girls.

So Big!

The chickens will be 5 weeks old this weekend. They are getting SOOO big so fast.  We decided to give them some treats this week. Chickens can eat pretty much anything but if you give them something besides their normal chicken feed, they will need gravel/grit to help digest it because they don't have teeth. When chickens are free ranging and outside, you don't normally need to give them any additional grit because they will pick up little rocks and stones. But since our chickens are currently restricted to a small plastic tote indoors, they don't have the opportunity to get rocks.

You can read all about how a chicken digests its food here:
http://scoopfromthecoop.nutrenaworld.com/tag/how-does-a-chicken-digest-food/

We decided to start off with some cut up grapes. Raven LOVED them and went crazy the first day she had them. We then bought some freeze dried meal worms. All of the girls loved these. They were eating them right out of our hand. We have been giving them some treats each time we come to visit them and play with them. They now seem to get excited when we come in the room (most likely because they know they will get treats). Tim is so close to being down with the coop. The girls are going to love it.

Our niece, Kaitlin, holding Fluffy.

Next up is Raven. Kaitlin was praying Raven wouldn't poop on her shoulder.

Tim, holding Fluffy. It was cute because Avery kept trying to give the chickens baby toys to play with.

Eating some grapes..notice the girt in the small plastic cup.

Here is the grit and the meal worms that we have been giving the girls. The meal worms are a big hit.

Scarlett is the biggest fan of the chickens. She is crazy about them...almost too crazy.