Moving to Their New Home!! The Coop!!

It has been a very exciting week for the Kelly Chickens!  They have moved out to their coop!  Last weekend we finished up the interior of the coop and decided to move them in.  There are a few things we still need to build (nesting boxes, perches)  but those things can wait a bit.  The main project to get done with the coop is the fence so the chickens can go outside.  I hope this gets done this weekend!  Here are a few pictures of the chickens moving into their home:

Here is a video of the chickens exploring their new home!

Being in their new home there have been a lot of new experiences for them.  They are now being exposed to more "night" time.  We turn off the light during the day so they can experience cold weather, which helps them develop their winter feathers.  At night when it gets the coldest we turn back on the heat light.  The roosters have been trying to crow when the light comes on.  I guess they think it is the morning!  Here is a video of two of the roosters trying to crow.

Ms. Champeau's class also asked a questions about how chickens drink water.  See if you can describe the process by watching the video below:

    Who does this belong too? 

   Who does this belong too?

   What's on Mick's head?

     What is on Mick's chin?

   What is different about the hens head?

 

Chicken Updates

We have had the chickens for over 5 weeks now and it is time to post some pictures of their growth.  These pictures were taken on 10-21-2011.  Can you see a difference?

Dallas

Winifred

Honey Badger

Chippy

Nina

Pinta

Pocahontas

Santa Maria

Mick Jagger

Which chicken am I with in the picture below?

What is happening here??

Chicken Names and Updates

The chickens are doing very well!  We had to make them a bigger chick house because they were growing so much.  Here are pictures that I took of each of them from last week.  As you can see they are really growing into their feathers.  I have also put their names next to each chicken so that you know what to call them.  I hope you have a wonderful day!  Think of your best wonder questions to ask!

Dallas - Easter Egger Chicken

Winifred - Easter Egger Chicken

Honey Badger - Easter Egger Chicken

Chippy - Easter Egger Chicken

Nina - Plymouth Rock Chicken

Pinta - Plymouth Rock Chicken

Santa Maria - Plymouth Rock Chicken

Pocahontas - Plymouth Rock Chicken

Mick Jagger - Rooster

Info on the three ships Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria

Also this week my wife and I have been taking the chicks outside to play in the grass.  We set up a cardboard cage in the grass so that the chicks couldn't escape.  We let them explore the grass and have some fun.  They really enjoyed pecking the grass and seeing all the small critters that were moving around.  On a scary note, when we took the chicks inside we looked at our yard and a big hawk swooped down and landed where we had the chicks.  Hawks can be predators of chickens so we were glad we got them inside safely.  Here is a picture of them outside in the grass.

Here is an updated picture of the coop with some siding.

I am looking forward to all of your wonder questions!!

Horses

My wife Meg and I just purchased horses yesturday and we are really excited to add them to our family.

They are 7 and 8 years old.  We bought them from a horse ranch in Dodgeville Wisconsin.  The horses are both quarter horses and are called Paints because of their coloring.  They will be arriving to our house on Tuesday the 11th of October.  Their names are Jazz and KT.  We were thinking about changing KT's name, but are not sure to what.  We are both very excited to have them in our family.

Maybe I could answer a few questions you had about horses?

Jazz

KT

Chicken Coop Update

This weekend was a big day for the chicken coop!!  My brother and I worked hard on making the coop water tight and started the siding.  We have never installed vinyl siding before so it was a learning opportunity for both of us.  We worked together, learned a lot and I think it looks awesome.

Here is a picture of the coop while we were building it this weekend.  I will post some more detailed pictures later tonight.  Enjoy!

Mrs. Gosch's Class Questions

This post is in response to the questions Mrs. Gosch's class asked.

Do you live on a farm?
Do you have any other animals?

I have attached pictures of our barn, our dogs and our updated chicken coop.

Enjoy!

    LuluMoose

      Coop

  Horse Barn

Horse Barn



Ordering the Chicks!!

We wanted to get the Chicken Coop mostly built before we ordered the chickens because if we ordered them too soon we wouldn't have a place for them to sleep.  And they can't sleep in my bed!  It took a lot of planning and organizing so we could order the chickens at the perfect time so they could move into their house when they are ready.

Now, ordering the chickens was an interesting ordeal.  You can actually order chickens through the mail!  We ordered our chickens from a very cool chicken farm in Texas.  The chickens were sent through the mail overnight to our house.  The scary part about this is that baby chicks need a lot of heat to survive, so we needed to pick up the babies as soon as they came in.  My wife picked them up from the post office at 8:00 AM right when they came in.  All of the chicks survived the long journey.

You might wonder how the chicks survive without eating that whole time.  Well, for the first 48-72 hours after they come out of the shell chickens can survive without food or water.  They still ingest their yolk sac from when they were in the egg.  I thought this was very cool!

Once we picked up the chicks we brought them home and put them in their new home for the next few weeks.  Since baby chickens do not have all their feathers yet they need to have a heat source to keep them nice and warm, or else they will not survive. Here is a picture of their home for the first few weeks and they grow:

The chicks really liked their new home. It is made out of an old dog crate with pine shavings on the bottom and paper towel over top.  The light that is hanging down has a heat bulb that makes the area underneath them nice and warm.  For the first week the temperature of the area needs to be 95 degrees.  Week 2 needs to be 90 degrees and week 3 is 85 degrees.  It goes down 5 degrees each week until they are ok with whatever temperature is in the house or outside.  By 8 weeks they should be able to handle Wisconsin Fall temperatures.  That is when they will move outside.

Another interesting fact about baby chicks is how they drink water.  After they are put in their home they need to be shown where the water is located.  To do this we had to pick up each chick and put its beak in the water.  Then they will come back and drink from it.  I thought that was very interesting.  We didn't have to do that for the food though.

Here are a few pictures of the chickens:

Make a reply to my post if you have any comments of questions!!

More to come soon!

My Families Chicken Adventure

   My wife and I have always wanted to raise chickens.  Living in Apartments, we have never had the space to have them.  When we purchased out new house in Sturtevant Wisconsin this summer we decided to give it a try.  After a few weeks of moving into the house I began construction on the Chicken Coop (Chicken House).

   The first day of building was a lot of fun but a lot of work.  To build the base my brother Shaun and I had to dig four deep holes, each 4 feet deep.  This was extremely hard when all we were using was a shovel and posthole digger.  Once they were finished we placed the posts in the ground and encased them in cement.  We let them harden and dry for a few days.

   Once the posts were in we started working on the platform or base of the coop.  This was a lot of fun because we were able to drill and screw in boards, but was difficult to keep everything level so the coop wouldn't be on an angle and all the chickens would slide to one side.
Once the base was done we started on the walls.  My brother made this part easy because he is an architect, which means he designs buildings for a living.  He made all the plans so the coop could be put up quickly and easily.

Here are a few pictures of the building process:

The Coop gets worked on every weekend.  I will post some updated pictures of what it looks like currently very soon.  Check back for updates!