Chickens... oh Chickens...

in #chickens7 years ago (edited)

Pennsylvania weather is killing me.
These chickens should have moved outside weeks ago.
They are 6 weeks old now... this photo is a over a week old and they are so much bigger already.

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I'll try to get some new pics later today.
We actually had snow this weekend with temps dipping down in the teens. Wednesday is looking like a promising eviction day. The day temps should stay up in the higher 40s and 50s with nights not dropping below 30.

They are fully feathered now and look like miniature chickens. They learned to peck holes through the box in the photo so we had to rig up a cubby for them in the attic. There are chickens in my attic. LOL And they are so bored. I feel bad for them. Two more days and they'll be free-ish... :) They have to stay in the coop a couple days to learn it's their home.. but then free free free at last.

I plan on doing some posts about what I've learned, but the most important that is easy to sum up in this post: If you live where the winter might never end, don't order your baby chicks for the end of February... Wait until the end of March :)
--Unless you have some huge brooder in your basement or a barn where they can comfortably reside until the weather is right. OR you can run heat in your coop. I don't have easy access to electricity outside so that is a no-go for us.

It's still been fun, but all consuming to keep them safe and happy in my house for 6 weeks. The cleaning really never ends after week two, also --so yeah, I haven't had much time for Steemit or anything else.

TWO. MORE. DAYS :)

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We have a dozen chickens and do enjoy having them especially the eggs but there is some work involved. We live along a major highway and I do get concerned for them when "free ranging".

We're in a tiny town without much traffic. I have neighbors... but not really 24/7 neighbors. The one house is only used for storage, and they show up to burn their garbage in the burn barrel there. He burns plastic. Gag. The other neighbor is a church --but he expressed a desire for my chickens to not be running all over his property at the church and I will respect that. I have two more neighbors a little further out that have a lot of dogs... so.... I've decided to fence off a good portion of my yard for them to 'free range' in. It's a decent sized yard so they'll be happy.

The chickens look very fat!)!

They are so floofy and fat in a good way :) Good eaters. I really need to get recent pics to post. It's amazing how fast they grow.

Чем кормите?

Wings pruning?

They are just near 5 weeks old in this photo --which is considered their "awkward teenage years" chickens just look funny at this age while their feathers are growing in. I did clip their wings when they were about 1.5 weeks old, but you can't even tell anymore. --And the wing clipping didn't really slow them down, they were still flying out of the brooder. :)

I once bought 21 chicken, there was no roof in the enclosure, but the walls were 2 meters high, everyone flew to the neighbors, for a week not a single one remained)) Neighbors did not give up, but I did not know what to cut my wings))