these chicks got some huge feet

Holy Smokes, I'm glad I don't have to buy shoes for these things... they'd outgrow them in a day.

How do I put this delicately? There's no way around it: these chicks have enormous feet. If they were little people, I'd expect them to have large Adam's Apples, to boot.

As I was going through the morning ritual of cleaning out the chicks' cage and refreshing food and water, Sophia fluttered up out of the cage to roost on top of it, mere inches from my face. It was at that moment I realized just how huge her feet had gotten in the last couple days (all the better to roost with, my dear!)

I got flashbacks to when Argus (our Great Dane) was just a puppy and how big his feet were in proportion to the rest of his body. He's now grown into his feet (all 150 pounds of him), and I'd expect the chickens will be doing much the same... only topping out at seven pounds, not 150.

Amazing to see how fast these little buggers are getting bigger.

chicks getting real big and moving on up

Seeing how quick the chicks grow, I can't believe that Big Ag supplements the food for their chickens so they grow even faster than ours. It's starting to sink in just how big these girls will be in just a couple more months. Hard to believe they were inside an egg just three weeks ago.

And the chicks have outgrown their first home-made brooder already.

I thought we'd be able to keep them in the 10-gallon fish tank (with a screened-lid) for the rest of the month, but with our sudden heat wave, there just wasn't enough circulation in the tank for them to keep cool enough.

Funny that my biggest concern was getting them enough heat by way of the infra-red lamp, and now we're faced with their being overheated.

So Mel went to the local Feed & Supply store (San Mateo Pet Supply over on El Camino Real) and picked up a wire bunny cage yesterday and moved the girls in before the day got hot yesterday.

And wouldn't you know, the chicks actually look like they sprouted up another inch in all directions last night.

and the chicks have names

According to Hannah, the chicks are named Sophia and ZsuZsu.

Still trying to figure out which chick is which (Hannah keeps changing her mind).

Pictures to come once she settles in on which one is Sophia, and the pictures will be good ones now that the girls are comfortable roosting on the side of their brooder.

UPDATE: we're still trying to nail down the appropriate way to spell Z's name

chick personalities growing

The chicks are becoming a lot less hand shy than at the beginning of the week. They no longer huddle in the far corner when I reach in to transfer from their brooder to the temporary holding box for the twice-daily cleanings of the brooder. I can now hold my hand at floor-level and they'll come over and hop on for the ride.

While changing out their cage this evening, one of the chicks hopped up on my forearm and just perched there, checking out the room, sizing me up and down... just hanging out. For the first time, I was able to appreciate just how delicate featured she is: the fuzzy head, her black-and-white striped plumage coming in, her curious swiveling of her head as she scoped things out.

Given how easily she perched, I'm thinking it might be time to put in something for them to roost on besides the food dispenser, especially if they're as old as I'm thinking they are.

I suspect our chicks might be older than the folks at Half Moon Bay Food & Fuel let on... pictures I've seen of Barred Rock chicks show smaller specimens at 9 days than our girls were when we brought them home. I'm thinking we might be closer to 3.5 weeks than the supposed two weeks we're coming up on per the sellers.

I've found that Mississippi State has some great (but dry) material on how to raise healthy chickens, and as I discover other worthy resources, I'll be sure to share them here.

how to raise your chicks

These are the instructions given out via a photocopy of a hand-written page to all first-time chick buyers from the folks at Half Moon Bay Feed & Fuel

Chicks need: Feed, water, heat, light & space

Feed:
1 day to 8 weeks:

• chick starter (20-22% protein)

8 weeks to 20 weeks:

• laying crumble (15-17% protein)
• chick grit
• chick scratch

20 weeks and older:

• laying crumble (15-17% protein)
• chick grit
• chick scratch
• oyster shell
  

Water:
Chicks should have fresh water at all times and should drink out of a chick waterer to prevent drowning

Heat, light and Space:
The temperature in the center of the cage should be 90 degrees the first week. Reduce the temperature 5 degrees per week until you get to 70 degrees. Then they shouldn't need any more heat. Make sure they have enough space in their cage to get away from the heat should they become too warm. We believe a heat lamp and a wire cage is the best way to provide heat, light and space for your chicks.

chicks growing before our eyes

Conceptually, I understand that in order for a chick to break out of its egg and become a seven-pound hen in four months, there's got to be an amazing rate of growth day in and day out.

Practically, I had no idea I'd literally be able to see the difference day over day.

I attributed the noticeable growth from Day 1 at our house to Day 2 as a simple matter of "they're just walking around the brooder bigger because they're more comfortable now that they've spent a night in their new home."

I can't attribute comfort-with-surroundings for the now-noticeable ridge of bumps that will eventually become the comb (cf this chicken anatomy illustration). They weren't there on Day 1.

I'm also starting to notice a difference in size between the two chicks, and I'm hoping that's just a genetic difference between the two pullets and not the early signs that I've got a "brother and sister" instead of two sisters. Stand by!

avoiding mass-marketed feed-based medications for chicks

When I was in Half Moon Bay Feed & Fuel yesterday, I saw a little tear-off advertising pad nailed to the wall next to all the chicks for sale. Since it was the only full-color flyer-esque thing in the otherwise drab corner of the room, I tore off a sheet and stuffed it in my pocket for later consumption. Part of what caught my eye was the logo "START 'EM RIGHT!" and a picture of two adorable little chicks.

A quick scan of the flyer showed tips on environment (keep it clean, keep it dry), space requirements (no crowding allowed), temperature (avoid the big chill) and water (whet their whistles). Good stuff for reading deeper later.

After I got home, I finally read the two-sided flyer to discover the handy chick-raising info is courtesy Purina Mills and their SunFresh Recipe livestock foods. What caught my eye was Purina Mills' suggestion that backyard egg producers (like my two chicks) be given Purina's Start & Grow® formula which is a medicated formula crafted specifically for chicks. Wow... my first brush with choosing to move away from the practices of Big Ag with my little flock.

Now, as part of my research, I'd read Barbara Kilarski's great book, Keep Chickens and one of the things she points out is that with a small flock (less than four birds), providing medicated feed isn't as important as with a larger flock where there's less room for the hens and therefore a greater chance of communicable something-or-other. I want my hens to live healthy, eat healthy and be healthy so that the eggs they produce are nice and nutritious for us as a family. Somehow adding medication to the food at the get-go feels very contrary to this approach.

So, for now, we're staying away from the medicated stuff. Hopefully for good.

My biggest worry in the next few weeks will be finding out if I hit the "you beat the 20-1 odds and got the cockerel that slipped through the sexing process" jackpot. One of our chicks seems to be getting bigger faster than the other one... and the bright patch on top of her (his?) head seems bigger than the other ones (sometimes a sign of a cockerel). We shall see...