Chicks are 4 weeks old - March 21

The Chickies are four weeks old today and growing like…like…..little chickies I guess. They are almost completely covered in feathers, and their baby fluff falls off everytime they flap their wings, and has created a sort of film over everything in our mudroom. The dust and the smell really grosses mom out, but I’ve assured her that as soon as the chicken house is built I will clean it all. Originally they were leaving their box at 3 weeks but unfortunately their house didn’t exist anywhere but in my head and on a piece of notebook paper, so their introduction to the outside world was postponed indefinitely. The roasters are huge, and boss everyone around when it comes to food. Two of the buff Orpingtons (the yellow ones) are roosters, I am aware that they will not be the best of buds when they grow up. Aware of this fact, we ordered only 1 rooster but the hatchery munificently (it means very generously I looked it up in the thesaurus:) gave us another. There may be room for only one father of the flock, but I have resolved to cross that bridge when it comes. We picked our 4 breeds for their personality, and so far have not been disappointed, they love to jump on my back when I lean over to fill their feeders and sit on my shoulder when I add more bedding to their box.

The chicken “manor” is under construction and the back half is sitting out back. The design of the chicken coop is based on a greenhouse,it has wooden framing for the sides with pvc pipe covered with recycled plastic for the roof. There aren’t many plans for these floating around the internet so I just combined several things I’d seen and ran it by my parents who made some adjustments here and there, before buying all the lumber. It is going to be huge, 10x16 feet. --Anna