My name is B'eLana Rowe. I am five years old and live in Oregon. I started this blog because my mommy and daddy bought some chicks yesterday and I want to tell you all about it. I cannot type or spell very well yet so my daddy is helping me with this blog. I tell him what to type and he types it for me. I hope you like this blog and I hope you enjoy learning about how to take care of chickens with me.
(When you see comments in parenthesis, such as this one, you are reading what B'eLana's daddy is adding to the post. I will limit my comments and statements to technical information and clarification. This blog is about B'eLana's experiences, not mine, so I don't want to add a bunch of my thoughts. Of course, I will try to type verbatim what she says, but I will also make certain grammatical changes as necessary to make reading easier. I hope you enjoy this blog and I hope you enjoy sharing B'eLana's experiences with her. Please feel free to leave comments relevant to this topic. Thank you.)
March 22, 2011:
Yesterday we got chickens. It was their first day here. We got three. They are colored red, black and yellow. (The red is a Rhode Island Red, the black is a Barred Rock and the yellow is an Americana.) We bought the chicks from Coastal Farm in Woodburn, where my grandma and grandpa live. We also bought their food, their bedding and grit. We also saw rabbits. (For the record, we purchased Nature Wise brand chick starter food, Purina brand chick grit and 10 cubic feet of Cozy Den brand pine shavings for their bedding.)
My daddy made a home for them. It is a plastic box with a lid. He made a big square hole in the lid and put a wire net (mesh) with pointies on it so the animals would not like it. He used red wire to hold it to the lid. He put a light in it so the chickens can stay warm. (It is a 100W heat lamp bulb. This keeps the interior temperature about 95 degrees under the lamp and about 75 degrees on the opposite side of the box by their food. I will provide complete details of how I made things further in this blog.)
We put bedding in the box then put the chickens in. This is how we brought them home from the store. After we got home my daddy put food and water in the box for them. We turned on the light to keep them warm. The yellow chicken is mine. I named her Flower. The red one is my daddy's. Her name is Rhoda. The black one is Kevin's. He hasn't named it yet.
We measured and weighed the chicks when we got home. Flower weighs 2.2 ounces and is 4.75 inches long. Rhoda is 1.7 ounces and four inches long. The black chick is 1.3 ounces and four inches long. We are going to weigh them again on the 28th. Oh, and measure them, too. I think they are going to get bigger. I can't wait to see how much!
Mommy and Daddy said I always have to wash my hands when I am done petting the chickens. I get to hold them EVERY day! They are very soft. I have to hold them VERY carefully 'cause I do not want to hurt them.
Today, we cleaned out their box. We changed their bedding because it had a lot of poop in it. We changed their food and water and we gave them those stones (scratch) to chew on. They need the stones to help them eat their food.
Today I saw them scratch away their bedding then peck at the bottom of the box! That was silly. They also peck at each other so they can decide who is going to be the leader. Daddy says this is called a pecking order. How does the leader chicken tell the other chickens what to do? I don't know.
We have to be very careful because our dogs and cat will eat the chicks. We keep them away from the chicks. We have to make sure the lid stays on very tight so the cat doesn't get them.
That's all I want to talk about today, I need to rest my brain for a while. I will tell you more when I have thought of more stuff.
(For the remainder of today's entry I am going to show you how we built their temporary home, feeder and watering trough. Pictures included!
For the watering trough I used a 16 ounce sour cream container and a bowl with a grate in it from one of my wife's instant meals she likes to eat. First, I cut two notches out of the top of the sour cream container opposite each other. I did the same with the lid. Next, I filled the bowl with water and put in the grate. Then I filled the sour cream container with water and placed on the lid with the notches lining up with the notches on the container. This allows water to exit the container when it is inverted (turned upside down). Finally, I placed the upside down sour cream dispenser in the bowl. When the water level in the bowl drops to just below the level of the notches, the dispenser will release more water until it reaches the top of the notch in it. Pretty simple, really. See pictures for clarification. For the food tray we simply used a two sectioned plastic dish from some child treat.
For the box we used a plastic Sterilite brand tote. I cut out a large section in the center of the lid. Then I drilled small holes around the perimeter of the hole about 3/4" from the edge. Next, I cut a section of wire mesh about four inches wider and four inches longer than the hole. I folded the wire mesh in half and cut a small slit about one inch long lengthwise in the center. Then I centered the mesh over the hole on the outside of the lid. Using 10AWG wire, I "sewed" the mesh to the lid by running the wire through the holes. Once completed, I folded the edges of the mesh UP to act as a kitty deterrent. These are the pointies that B'eLana mentioned earlier. Finally, I ran the cord of the heat lamp through the hole I put in the center of the mesh so the bulb stayed inside the box and the plug exited the box. Again, very simple and inexpensive. I will begin building their coop and run soon and will provide details and pictures of the progress. Please enjoy the pictures provided.
Soon, if I can figure out how to do it, we will have a chick cam set up so you can watch the chicks as they grow. Thanks for reading and sharing this experience with us.)
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