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The Great Chicken Migration

By: Gage3 Comments

The Great Chicken Migration

Good Morning! Sorry I have not posted in a while. I am finishing up my Apologia General Science class, and I’ve been getting a little lazy this summer :P. Anyway, I’m trying to get back to blogging. But I have been working with the chicks, I just haven’t been writing about it!  Last Thursday we decided that it was time for the Great Chicken Migration, to move all 30 “babies” to our second chicken pen where the teenage chicks have been.  

The first two chicks were chosen:  Nipper (a barred rock cochin bantam) and Foghorn (a white frizzle) were placed in the coop. Nipper just walked out through the chicken Foghorndoor (see picture above), but Foghorn just looked out the door and there is where the problems started.  As we (Mom and my brothers) continued placing the chicks in the coop, they just piled up in there at the chicken door. We got one more chick to go out, Cuddles, a deep black Barred Rock Cochin Bantam girl… but all the rest just hung around inside the coop and at the door. Cuddles just trotted around the pen and ate some food and drank water.  So we started taking them out of the coop, dipping their beaks in the new water source and showing them the food. We got about half out when we started noticing the second problem.  

The teenage chicks were bullying the “babies”.  That was not going to work, so we moved the teenagers into the grown chickens’ pen where they are enjoying their new jungle. That night we had to corral half of the chicks back in the coop.  Why only half?  Because half of the chicks never even left the coop to begin with that day.  The chicks had no experience being put up at night, so we had to help them all learn to go in at night and come out during the day.  We had to pull two out of the little dog house we have in their pen.  I guess they were using it for shade or because it was not as crowded at the door to get in!  When we went out in the morning to let the chicks out, we found we had left one out all night long.  But thank God it was okay!!!!

SupermoonNow the chicks know the routine, they know where the food and water live, when to come out in the morning, when to put themselves up at night and how to get in the rafters!  They have not experienced any weather other than normal sunny days and moonlit nights so it will be a new experience when it rains!  And tonight may be the night… the forecast shows rain and a storm.  They did get to see the International Space Station fly over and they got to see the Super Moon too!!!

Well… I will keep you updated and I will keep posting pictures!!!  See Ya Soon!

Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 Psalm onenineTEEN Review

By: Chase3 Comments

Psalm onenineTEEN Reviews

Hello, I’m Chase, I’m thirteen years old and I am the latest contributor to our homeschool blog at Live and Learn Farm.  I am starting a new column called “Psalm onenineTeen Reviews”. I will be reading and reviewing books that are written for teens. My family and I are Messianic. We believe that we should live the whole bible just like Jesus did. So my reviews will be different, they will focus on how these books line up with our beliefs. Does the book help us walk out our faith in everyday life? Do they encourage us to live a more honorable life? Would I recommend them to my believing friends?

My first review is of a book by Richard Paul Evans.  Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 is about a teenage boy whoA Psalm onenine TEEN Review of The Prisoner of Cell 25 is transformed by a freak accident, giving him electrical powers. In the book, the boy, Michael Vey, is facing tough decisions around every corner. He has to  choose between doing what he knows is right or doing what is best for himself.   

Michael’s life has gone from weird to absolutely crazy… and now to unbelievably dangerous. When one of Michael’s friends accidentally falls into a trap and reveals vital information to the people who are searching for him, the real hunt begins. Michael and his friend, Ostin, need the help of someone they both hate, so they have to set aside their personal feelings and differences to work together. At first Michael and his friends have no clue who is hunting them nor why. However, the more the friends investigate, more puzzle pieces start falling into place, and everything becomes clear.   

To sum it up, Michael is on a quest to help his friends escape from their captors and shut down the people who kidnapped them for good. But what Michael doesn’t know is, he’s playing right into their hands, and soon, their captors’ mission will be complete.  

Now, I have to give you, the reader, a WARNING… The author has created a series that will cause severe addiction, uncontrollable cravings, and no desire to do anything but read all day! You’re always wondering what’s going to happen next, and this is true even through the end of the book. Once you’ve read the book, you’ll have to read the next, just because you want to know what happens.  

Some things I really like about this series are:

–   All the characters are always trying to help each other out.  
–  They never use any offensive language
–  They always have a good attitude.
–  The characters are easily identified as either good or bad.  
–  The good guys are good… willing to sacrifice everything to do the right thing.  

This book can be defined as a classic good versus evil novel.  Would I recommend this book to my believing friends?  Yes, definitely!  I read this book in less than 24 hours… it is THAT good!  

The next book in the series is Michael Vey: Rise of the Elgen.  I’ll write a review on this book soon.  

 

Roots, Fruits and Shoots Business

By: Blake5 Comments

Blueberries

Hello, my name is Blake and I’m nine years old.  We are a homeschooling family and I have just started an organic produce business.  I named it Roots, Fruits and Shoots. We have been busy planting a garden this spring.  It is our first time to use wood mulch.  My mom has been posting about it until now.  I’ll be posting about the garden now.

We were not sure about the wood mulch at first, but once we saw the weeds flourishing under the mulch we thought our plants might do well.  We have been weeding the garden and the roots were big, but most were so easy to pull up.  I have only watered the garden once this year.  The wood mulch stores the moisture for the plants.  

We have quite a lot of things coming up like nasturtium, strawberries, potatoes, blueberries, carrots, and radish.  And we also have horseradish and blackberries in our front yard.  Our first crop is starting to come in, guess what it is?  Strawberries!!!  We harvested our first strawberries today!!!  

Strawberries

We have a green house where we planted tomatoes and peppers in pots.  We will move them out when they have matured and its warm enough.  I will be planting beans, corn, zucchini, squash, watermelon, pumpkins, cantaloupe, honey dew, Okra, and cucumbers very soon.  

Four years ago we planted blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, apples, grapes, peaches, and pears.  They are really starting to flourish and produce lots of fruit now.  Especially our blackberries and strawberries.

Blackberries

 

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!

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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!

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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!