Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Kitchen Sinks, the Perfect Place for a Bath

The black chicks survived last night with no problems. They are still much smaller than their counterparts, but they are thriving and doing well. I have moved everyone into an empty parrot cage. The floor is lined with newspaper, which makes changing it easy. And, there is plenty of room for the chicks to settle under the warmth or move to the cooler side to be comfortable and for their food and water containers. Plus, as the chicks grow, they will use the wooden roost at night. To help control the temperature, I have pinned a white towel to 3 sides of the cage and hung a heat lamp from the ceiling- far away from where they can reach and injure themselves- and placed a thermometer at chick level. The whole arrangement is very satisfactory.


 

When I had finish settling the chicks to their new home, I ran some warm water in both bays of my kitchen sink for the ducklings and goslings to bathe in. Each morning, we wake to find their water container (which holds over a gallon of water) empty and the nice fresh shavings soaked with water. Ducks are messy little beasts! Kristen and Meaghan stood guard over the bathers while I scooped out the wet pine shavings and added fresh dry shavings. This would be the goslings first foray into bathing, but they seemed to enjoy it and know what to do about preening. Guards are necessary because neither breed of fowl seems to be afraid of jumping out of the sink and onto my counter, falling to the floor or into the very interested mouth of Fenn... lots of dangers to watch for!




The ducklings have grown and no longer both fit into one hand. They are just over 2 weeks old and are filling out nicely. The goslings are only about 1 week old and are just a little bigger than the ducklings. They are still very friendly, though they do not follow me in the same way the ducklings did. The ducklings are growing more bold of being on their own and become less frantic if I walk away from them, which is how it should be. In no time at all, they will be ready to live outside all the time.

I have marked my calendar and plan on putting the next batch of 36 eggs into the incubator. I will hatch out a mixture of americaunas, cochins, rhode island reds, and black sex links. I am planning on having them hatch for July 6th, while our niece, Abby is visiting us. (I think she will really enjoy playing with the new peepers.) This is perfect timing, too, in that our inside housing will be empty by then and ready for new occupants- after a good cleaning, of course! 18 of the new chicks are already spoken for, but I still have (potentially) 18 available for purchasing. If you are interested in adding to your flock, feel free to email me and we can connect. You can read about buying chicks and our pricing on that tab at the top of my page.

The rain is coming and going, but the sun is shining through. I hope that tomorrow clears so I can mow this lawn!

Thanks for visiting!
Sonja ♥

2 comments:

  1. Wow, you have already found buyers for 18 chicks. That is awesome! They are super cute! I know my monkey will love playing with the new babies!

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  2. Hello, I have a few things from our farming days. I will get rid of them if you have no use for them. heat lamp, food and water containers for baby and adult birds. as well as some used chicken wire that will be rolled up. you can let me know on thurs night. i look forward to seeing all the babies when we visit you soon. cherie

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