Live and Learn Farm

You are here: Home / Archives for Teen Blogs / Gage - 13 Years Old

Happy for Honey

By: Gage1 Comment

Nex, the new teenage chick

 

Good Afternoon!  I know I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been catching up and finishing up our school year.  So, my update will be a little old, actually about a month old.  Almost a month ago, my mom called me to come look at her computer for something. It was a message from Ms. Pamela asking if I would want another chicken. I was thrilled and of course, I want another “Surprise Baby Chick”!! But, now it’s more like a “Surprise Teenage Chick.”  I had been wondering if Miss Pamela would want to give away her third chick because she told us she only wanted two chickens. But I was concerned about how our teenage chicks would treat the new one!  I had also wondered how Honey, our only Red Sex Link, felt.  Does she feel different or like the odd ball? Well, when mom and dad agreed that we could have the other Red Sex Link, I was so happy for Honey.

When Sunday evening came, the day we agreed to get the chick, I grabbed the cat carrier and me and dad were off to see Ms. Pamela!  Upon arriving I had the same question come back, will the other Teenage chicks treat him or her well?  Will they accept him or her into the group?  When I saw her three chicks I thought… Wow they have grown! They were triple the size they were when we got our first surprise chicks.  I had not realized how much our teenage chicks had grown.  We thanked Ms. Pamela for another friend and brought him home (I think it is a rooster)!

When we got home I carefully carried the cat carrier with our new teenage chick in it and put it up against the teenage chicks’ playpen. My teenage chicks seemed to like the new chick.  I sat and watched them together and I decided on his name, Nex.  I opened the playpen and put Nex in and they had a great family reunion! Now all the teenage chicks are out in our large spare chicken pen and they are LOVING it!!! They love to stretch their wings, run, fly and play. When they get old enough, they will be able to stay in the big coop at night but for now they are brought back into our garage every night.

Nex and Honey

I’ll post more soon!  

Teenage Chicks’ Playpen

By: Gage6 Comments

 

 

Teenage Leghorns and Red Sexlink

Good afternoon. As our surprise baby chicks grow from young balls of fluff to teenage chicks, they are getting more and more rambunctious.  One of the leghorns started wanting to roost so he/she would fly on top of the waterer.  They all love to try to fly, run, and play.  I decided they needed a perch, so my dad and I created them a small perch and they loved it!  

But that is not enough. They need to start getting ready for the outside world, the grass and hunting for bugs.  I saw a big one on Backyard Chickens, but we didn’t really want one that big.   So my Dad made them a small outdoor play pen.  It does not have a bottom so they can be in the grass and scratch around.  Their waterer and a bucket are in there (the bucket is for them to hide in if they want),  they are loving this too!  I scattered some of their chick starter on the ground in the play pen so they could start learning where to look for some of their food. I had to put them back in their brooder though because it started to rain. They all seemed shocked by the rain, this was their first rain they ever really experienced.  

Chicks' Playpen

 

 

In a month, I will move the teenage chicks out with the Rhode Island Red chickens.  We will keep them in a separate pen and the coop is separated too.  I believe they will be shocked by them too.  We think one of the surprise chicks is a rooster because… early one morning dad was checking on all the chicks when he thought he heard a strange rooster call emanating from the teenage chick’s side of the garage. I can not tell which is a rooster yet but i will be able to soon. They don’t need a heat lamp any more unless it is a cold night. If one of them finds something interesting he/she picks it up and the other two will chase it until they either lose it or if it is food, eat it. They love to cuddle with each other when they are tired

They are very tricky sometimes.  For instance… As I got their waterer out to clean and refill, one of the leghorns hopped up on a support beam in the top of the brooder.  This is not the first time this has happened.  The last time I handled it wrong and the two leghorns got out!  Thankfully me and mom caught them before they ran off. After learning my lesson last time, this time I just slowly put the top to the brooder back on and he/she just hopped back down in the brooder. 

I’ll give you an update on the baby chicks this week too.  See ya’ soon!

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Announcing … The Deluxe Clucks Live Brooder Cam!!!

By: Gage21 Comments

Deluxe Clucks Live Brooder CamI am so excited to announce the Deluxe Clucks Live Brooder Cam!!!  My dad has been working on this project for a little while and he tested it yesterday with our three surprise chicks…. and it’s working!!!  There will be two ways to access the webcam feed.  You can go to www.ustream.com and search for “Deluxe Clucks” and watch it there.  Or you can go to this blog and look in the right sidebar.  There you will see a box and you click play to watch the webcam!  Thanks Dad for getting the webcam working!!!  

The way it works is, we have a video camera over the brooder box that is connected to a laptop.  It is sending the live feed to ustream.   Isn’t technology amazing?!?

I hope you will watch the chicks often and enjoy them!  I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks!  Mom contacted Welp Hatchery today to see if the chicks had shipped on the ninth.  So be sure to watch on the 11th for the new frizzle and cochin bantam baby chicks!

 

See Ya’ Soon!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 

Cedar Shavings Can Be TOXIC for Chicks!

By: Gage4 Comments

 

 

Cedar Shavings can be Toxic to Chickens

Good afternoon!!  Yesterday I reviewed the comments on my posts and a few people were saying not to use cedar shavings. What’s wrong with cedar I thought? Well, after doing some research it turns out that cedar shavings can be toxic for chicks!!!  And, even worse, they don’t even have to eat the the shavings or breathe the oil’s fumes for it to hurt them. The oil from cedar  can be absorbed through the feet of the chicks.  The oil fumes can also cause respiratory problems and digestive track problems. The safest thing to use is pine shavings which do not have toxic oils. But for the first few days you need to use paper towels.   I wanted to be sure everyone knows not to use cedar for their chicks!

McMurray Hatchery states:

LITTER: Wood shavings, rice hulls, or ground cobs make good litter. Do not use cedar chips, sawdust (It is too small and the birds may eat it instead of their food), or treated wood chips. Sand, straw, or dirt will also work but are not as good as the others. Put the litter all over the floor at least 1 inch thick. Keep it covered for the first day with newspapers to keep the chicks from eating the litter instead of the feed. To avoid possible leg problems, remove the papers after the first day for heavy breeds and meat birds and after the third day for lighter breeds.

Thank you to all who commented for me to change the shavings!  You guys really helped me out and maybe even saved my chicks’ lives!  You all have been a blessing!  

See Ya’ Soon!

New HUGE Brooder Box

By: Gage18 Comments

Good afternoon!  Yesterday as we approached four days until the chicks would arrive, I knew we had to come up with a huge brooder box design.  Our current cattle trough brooder just won’t hold 33 chicks.  

Cattle Trough Chick Brooder Box

 

I’ve been researching brooders,  the cattle trough and dog kennel designs would not work nor would any of the other designs we looked at.  I visited BackYard Chickens to see the suggestions out there.  They have a long list of ideas, but I needed something that would hold 30 chicks and to make it out of things we already have here.  

 

Bookshelf Brooder Box

 

Dad and I were in the barn looking at some cabinets we have but they looked too small to me.  So, I decided to use some old book shelves we have in the garage.  They were left over from our recent classroom redesign and I knew I could arrange them into a large brooder box.  We moved them into the shape of a rectangle  (5’4″ x 2’3″) and taped large garbage bags onto the backs of the bookshelves so they would not get ruined.

 

Brooder Box Cover

After we got the bookshelves in place and bags taped on the backs,  Dad and I started making the cover to the brooder box.  We made it out of tomato stakes and chicken wire.  We decided to use two covers instead of one giant one, which makes it easier to open.  There are only a couple of things that need to be done to be completely ready for the chicks to arrive:

  • put cardboard on the floor under the shelves
  • put some shavings in the bottom of the brooder
  • get another feeder
  • get another waterer
  • get another heat lamp
  • find a recipe for jump starter for the chicks when they first arrive to help them regain their strength

 

Today I met with our post office manager to ask if they would call me when the chicks arrive from Welp Hatchery this week.   I should be finished with the rest of this list by the time the chicks get here.  When I find a good kick-start recipe, I’ll post it here too.  

If you see anything that I have left out of the brooder or the things I need to get, please leave a comment down below.  I check them everyday after class.  

See ya’ soon!  

 

Pasty Butt WARNING!

By: Gage5 Comments

Pasty ButtGood afternoon!  I know, strange title… but this is important and could save your chick’s life one day.  So… what is pasty butt, you ask?

Pasty butt is a common thing that can happen to your chicks. When chicks are stressed, chilled or dehydrated, they can get this.  It can be fatal, if not treated.  Its just poop that has hardened on a chick’s bottom but it can block their vent.  This is critical that the vent area gets cleaned thoroughly because the vent is the place where they poop, urinate and lay eggs.  If it is blocked, the chick can’t poop or pee leading to death.  

This is what happened and how we dealt with it.  As we were looking at our chicks the other day we discovered that one of our leghorn chicks had pasty butt.  The first thing I tried to do was just wipe the poop off, but it was really dried and stuck. So I went and got a small plastic tub and filled it with warm water. Then I picked up the little leghorn chick and she got a bottom soak, which she seemed to enjoy for a little while.  After her soak I tried to wipe her bottom again, but it was still stuck. So I soaked her bottom some more and finally I got it off.  Today I checked her bottom, but which bottom is her’s? Her bottom was so clean I could not tell the two leghorns apart!! I have decided to name her Tweety because of her sweet little tweets while I soaked her.  I did finally determine which chick was which…. because Tweety has a bigger head than April.  So I figured out which leghorn was which!  

This morning my mom was talking with a Google+ friend who has a business helping people start farms and raise healthy animals.  Ms. Vicky Hinschlager owns Small Farm Solutions and she confirmed that we did the right thing to help Tweety.  I’m thankful Ms. Vicky is there to help us!  

I will continue to check on Tweety’s situation and to be sure her sickness is gone.  In the meantime, we read on BackYard Chickens about some natural remedies and found that yogurt is helpful. Yogurt has probiotics that give the chicks more friendly bacteria in their intestines to help fight off sicknesses better.  We also have dairy cows on our farm, so mom and I made yogurt this morning.  We pulled out our new Yogotherm and used it for the first time!  We are waiting for it to be ready to mix with their chick starter for dinner tonight!  I’m sure I’ll post about what the chicks thought of the yogurt later (with pictures)!  

See ya’ soon! 

 

 

Pictures of Surprise Baby Chicks

By: Gagecomment

Good morning!  Sorry I did not get the pictures of the surprise baby chicks posted sooner.  We got two White Leghorns and one Red Sex Link. We got our brooder, which is an old metal cattle trough with the bottom cut out and sanded smooth, and we washed out the baby chick waterer and got a small lid for their food.  Next we were going to get our heat lamp but we discovered it was missing!  So we all went on a scavenger hunt for our missing heat lamp.  Talk about a small crisis … we had less than 30 minutes to go pick up the chicks but couldn’t find the heat lamp.  Dad won the scavenger hunt, finding the heat lamp at the barn and even an extra one.  We used red lights for the heat lamp because they are supposed to be easier for the baby chicks to rest under. I have named one of the Leghorns April.  We are still thinking about names for the other two.  I’ll keep you posted on the naming them.  Ms. Pamela, if you are reading this, thank you! 

Here are some pictures of our surprise baby chicks…. 

 

Surprise Baby Chick April

Standing in their food red light

Surprise baby chicks

See ya’ soon!

Introducing….. Deluxe Clucks

By: Gage21 Comments

Cluckers, Rocky and Cutie Rhode Island RedsHi, I’m Gage, I am in 5th grade, homeschooled, and 11 years old. I am the owner of six chickens, about to be 36. I am going to be blogging about my chicken business on Live and Learn Farm.  My business name is going to be Deluxe Clucks and the business will be to sell eggs for eating, eggs for incubating, and sell chicks.

I am counting down the days till our chicks we bought are shipped out. It is a very nerve racking thing to order live animals through the mail, especially for the first time. We have ordered 30 chicks from Welp Hatchery.  The chicks should be alright coming in the mail. They will be shipped Priority Mail which will only take two days. They will not be hungry during their shipment because when a chick hatches it has a sack of food on its belly called the yolk and it will sustain them for a few days.  The chicks we ordered are five Barred Cochin Bantams, five Blue Cochin Bantams, 10 Red Frizzle Cochin Bantams and 10 White Frizzle Cochin Bantams.  The white and red frizzles have a mutation.  It does not cause them any trouble or dysfunction it’s just that their feathers curl out, not in.

Chicks are not hard to keep.  All they require is a brooder (a small area to keep them in until they are mature enough to be outside in the chicken pen), a heat source, food and water and, just recently, I found out chicks need a shady place to stay if they get hot.  And protection… we have had a problem with predators in the past. We once had about 25 Rhode Island Reds, now we are down to six, (5 hens and 1 rooster). The reason we only have 6 hens now is a coyote problem.

Right now we are preparing for their arrival. We are going to use a large box as their brooder, and as they grow we shall add more boxes. Chicks and chickens are very fun to keep and I enjoy being able to care for them. The other thing we will be using are… a heat lamp, food and waterers and puppy training pads (for flooring) I am looking forward to blogging about my experiences with my chicks and chickens.

And just today we got a surprise blessing! A friend went to Tractor Supply and was going to buy two chicks but the minimum was six. So she asked us if we want three or four chicks and we said yes! I have been so impatient that it was still a week till the chicks would even be mailed, so this is an answer to my prayer.  I’ll post pictures soon! 

See ya’ soon!

 

Peek-a-boo

By: Trish Corlew3 Comments

Peek-a-boo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn’t this just the cutest picture?  That baby looks like she is saying “peek-a-boo”!  It’s not one of our chickens, I just saw it on Facebook and had to share it!  We are all getting so excited about our baby chicks arriving in a couple of weeks!  My middle son, Gage will be opening the business centered around the chickens.  He will sell chicken eggs to eat and to hatch and sell baby chicks to raise.  If you haven’t read Pickin’ Chickens, that article explained in more detail why the boys each will have businesses in middle school.  For my Montessori friends, think practical life on steroids!  He will be responsible for cleaning out the coop and gathering the eggs, as well as feeding and watering them.  We all share chores in our house so he will have help, but it is his responsibility to ensure that all of this is taken care of daily.  This is another Montessori concept that is taking on a more mature dynamic.  He will also be creating and keeping the books for his business, so Gage will be learning all about accounting and economics, via running his own business instead of some esoteric, ambiguous case studies in a textbook that he cannot relate to.  

Gage will be the author for all the chicken posts on our blog once the chicks arrive (I will change the comments to be moderated once he starts posting). He will be photographing the chicks to document their growth and progress.  (Photography is one of those creative outlets that he is exploring so he won’t end up being an art vacuum like me! Thanks to his photography teacher Lori Lee, he will probably end up taking far better pictures than I do!)  So, he is learning how to market his business and write articles that will be not only informative, but also entertaining.

Gage is in the process of developing a name for his business now but he could use some help!  If you think of a great name for his business, he would love to hear it!  To give you some insight into Gage in order to help with the name suggestions:  He has a huge heart and an intense love for animals (this is why he has the animal biz).  He is our middle-son, so he is the peace-maker.  He is calm, loving and genuine.  He loves to kid around and is a bit of a prankster.  He loves legos, star-wars and the beach.  If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below. We look forward to reading your suggestions!  

Until next time… 

Pickin’ Chickens!!!

By: Trish Corlew6 Comments

Today we decided to get our “chickens in a row” and pick the chickens we want to add to our flock of Rhode Island Reds. We fell in love with Rachel, the red frizzled cochin from Kathy, The Chicken Chick!  So we knew one of the breeds we were adding would be frizzled bantam cochin!  (Note this is a long article, so I have chosen to use the “read more” tab below in order to shorten the articles on the home page… so if you are interested, please be sure to click the “read more” button right below the share buttons for the various social media sites).  See what a lovely lady little Rachel is:  

 

Rachel

Our current coop / pen combinations severely restrict our options for adding chickens.  The way the coop and pens are laid out now, we can only prevent two breeds from mingling.  Therefore, we decided to go with all bantam / cochins.  We ordered them from a new hatchery we found Welp, Inc.  They have been in business since 1929, so they are certainly not a “new business” just new to us!  We will provide a review of this hatchery once we receive the chicks (they will not ship out until 4/9).  Below are pictures of the chickens we ended up pickin’ today:

[Read more…]