Raising Chicks

No, I'm not talking about daughters.  I don't happen to have any of those.  The chicks I'm talking about grow up to be chickens (hopefully hens).  We recently raised our third batch of chicks, and I have to say this one has gone pretty smoothly so far.  This is partially due to the fact that we built a new brooder to help contain the chicks during their first month (pictured left).  We've used altered dog kennels and plastic bins in the past, but this made it easier to care for the chicks and less messy in the room.  Though the brooder was built to house chicks, I have to say after moving the chicks and a thorough cleaning, it makes a great place to let tomatoes ripen before usage/freezing.  No matter what's inside, it's great at keeping the cats out!

One thing we realized after moving the chicks into the brooder was that the temperature tended to get a little high.  We added extra ventilation by adding an optional screened area for the lid.  This helped us regulate temperatures perfectly.  In the picture above, the hinged flap on top is raised, making room for the ventilation screen.

When the chicks were between four and five weeks old, we set up their outdoor enclosure and used a cat carrier to move them to it.  Since they now have an outside run, we had to teach them to sleep in their house by locking them in the cat carrier at night for the first few nights.  When they are old enough to join the flock (young chickens can be killed by older flock members), they will be allowed to free range with the others and will share their coop at night.  Pictured right is the outdoor run for the chicks with Eagle (our rooster) and an Easter Egger in the background (new chicks are intimidated by their proximity and are inside their coop).  You can see how the chicks are being safely introduced to the old flock, by living with a fence between them for a few months.

Advice for Living with an Aggressive Rooster

1.  Don't!

Actually, that's not quite true.  There are many reasons why you might choose to live with an aggressive rooster.  Here are ours:

1.  We didn't know what we were doing when we raised him, and are now responsible for the way he turned out.

2.  He does a great job of taking care of our free-range hens.

3.  It's kind of sweet the way he calls the hens over when he finds special foods instead of eating them himself.

4.  There are ways to live with an aggressive rooster without getting hurt.  After four years with a rooster, here is my advice:

• Use a spray bottle to help control the rooster's behavior.  This is especially useful if he's gotten into a part of the yard you normally reserve for yourself.
• Use fencing to separate the rooster from the part of the yard you use the most.
• Use rope (or twine or wire -- whatever's handy) to open and close the coop door without having to come face to face with the rooster.
• You might also choose to block off a separate section of your yard with a flap.  For example, we can block the rooster in his coop, in the chicken yard (by putting a flap down on the tunnel between the chicken yard and the "free-range" yard (ie our acreage)), or we can block him out of the tunnel, so he has to stay in the free-range yard and we can pass through the chicken yard.  This is helpful since it is our main access for the garden.

Possibly this is all better off with pictures, so I will get some more taken and posted soon.

Let me just remind you that life with twenty animals can be amazing, but it certainly has its challenges.  Our rooster, Eagle (named at 3 days old when we still thought he was the hen we'd ordered but when we noticed a certain chill in his eyes!) has definitely been a source of challenge.  But, I also credit him with protecting our little flock from the predators around us ... stray dogs, coyotes, foxes, opossum, raccoons, hawks, owls, etc.  Knock on wood, but with him in charge, we have not lost any chickens to predators.