Chicken Dust Bath ~ If you build it, will they come?

It was my hope that if I built a Dust Bath for my chicks, they would actually use it.  Having baby chicks with no adult chickens to teach them, means I either have to teach them myself or rely on instinct to guide them.  I had to consider this when I decided to create a Dust Bath in one area of the chicken run.  The ground in our chicken run is covered with small granite rocks.  I figure that eventually the full-grown chickens will have the rocks turned under in the dirt, but until then it is about 1-2" deep in rocks all over the run, leaving no clear area for dust bathing.  I decided to use a cat litter box, one with the lip at the top in hopes it would keep some of the dirt inside.  I marked the outside edge of the cat box and dug a hole in the ground the depth of the box, leaving the lipped edge above ground.

I filled the new dust bath with a 50/50 mix of dusty super-soil left over from my raised bed garden and sand I got out of the wash down the road.  I added some DE (after lots of debate over the pro's and con's of using DE around the chickens).  I used the litter scooper to remove any small chunks of stuff that might be still in the dirt.  To me it looked like the perfect little dust bath...now I just hoped they would actually use it. I've heard from other chicken keepers how they went through the trouble of making a special place for a dust bath and the chickens wouldn't use it because they liked a spot under a bush much better.


But two days later...

Isn't that so Cool?!?!  I was just sitting in the run watching the chickens scratch around for bugs and what-not, then one of the Rhode Island Reds wondered into the dust bath box and took a bath!  As you can see in the video, all the other chicks followed her lead and they all took their first dust bath.  Just like human babies, they became all tuckered out after taking their bath so they took a nap...right in the bath!

Sleeping babes after their first Dust Bath!

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Vacationing with your Peeps! ~Traveling with Chickens, DIY Water Bottle

Have you ever taken a vacation with your chickens?  We did!

We didn't exactly have a choice.  When the chicks were almost 5 weeks old we needed to go out of town for 4 days to our daughters house, which is about a 3 hour drive away.  At their young age, the chicks had only voluntarily gone to bed in the coop for the first time on the night before we were due to leave.  So they still needed me to scoop them up and put them to bed at night.  I friend offered to check on our chicks while we were away but I couldn't ask her to come let them out early each morning then come back and put them away each night.  Besides, she doesn't have chicks so she has no experience catching them to put them away, and twice a day is a bit too much to ask.

So the only option left was to take them with us.  So I got started figuring out how exactly we were going to travel with 8 little chickens.  I figured they could travel in the dog crate that we brought them home in, but this time I needed something to keep them in the crate, and hopefully keep some of the litter in the crate instead of in my van.  I picked up a yard of heavy clear vinyl from JoAnn's Fabric store.  I cut it into 12" strips that I placed inside the crate around the walls.  To keep the vinyl in place I used some zip-ties to attach it to the bars.  In order to attach the zip-ties through the vinyl, I needed to punch some small holes in it.  Since I already had my scissors outside with me, I got the really dumb idea of using them to poke the wholes, rather than taking the time to go inside the house to find an awl.  Why was this a dumb idea?  Because when I was poking my very first hole the heavy vinyl I found it difficult to puncture so I had to apply lots of pressure with the scissors...then it gave way and sliced through my finger on the other side!  OUCH!!

The first thought that went through my head, (right after, "OMG that was stupid!") was, "Uh-Oh, right before slicing my finger open I was just flicking the poopy litter out of my way with my FINGERS!" My second thought was, "Gee, when was my last Tetanus shot?"  I couldn't remember the last shot so I am pretty sure it was well beyond the 10 years recommended for booster shots.  I went in the house and thoroughly cleaned my wound and bandaged it up.  Then I went back outside (with an awl that I had in my sewing room) and finished punching the remaining holes and attaching the vinyl to the crate walls.  Then we made the 45 minute drive into town to get a Tetanus shot.

After we got back home I went back to work on the chicken travel crate.  They needed a portable water source so I decided to make them a mini watering bottle out of a DaSani bottle and a chicken nipple.  
It was really easy to make and a great thing to have on hand in the future if I have to confine a single chicken (or more baby chicks) away from the main Chicken Fountain in the future.   Back before we got our first chick, when I was shopping for waterers I came across chicken nipples, so I bought 6 of them to have on hand in case I might need them in the future.  Good thing because they are not available locally and I didn't have time to buy them at the last moment.  I could have bought a portable watering bottle but they were pricey -the nipples were very cheap and the bottle was free.

Here's how to make your own.  Remove the screw-on cap from a water bottle.  Using a 5/8" drill (the threads on my chicken nipples are 5/8", so check yours first) drill a hole in the center of the cap.  Clean off any plastic bits 'n pieces remaining around the hole.  Wrap the chicken nipple threads with a piece of teflon plumbers tape (being sure it is going in the same direction it screws on).  Then screw the nipple into the hole you drilled in the cap.  The nipple just happened to fit perfectly in my screw driver end so I used it to help screw the nipple in.  Screw it in only until the threaded area is no longer visible, do not over tighten or you might strip out the hole.  Fill the bottle with water, screw on the cap with the chicken nipple. Turn the bottle upside down and poke a tiny hole in the bottom of the bottle (using an awl or tiny drill bit).  This tiny hole will allow air to get in the bottle as the water drips out the nipple.  If you don't put the hole in it the bottle may either collapse as they drink or will not allow more water to drain out when they try to drink.  When refilling the bottle simply place your finger over this hole until you replace the cap and turn the bottle back upside down.

At first I used light wire to attach the bottle to the crate door, but I realized that was going to be a problem every time I needed to refill the bottle, so I replaced that with a loosely zipped zip-tie and two pieces of elastic pinned together to hold the bottle in the right position.

With the dog crate travel-ready, we loaded up the chicks and headed out.  Once we arrived at our daughters we placed the crate inside the 6'x6' chain-link dog kennel and let the chicks out.  To prevent the tiny chicks from simply walking out the chain link I wrapped the bottom 2' with chicken wire.  We then put blocks around the bottom and two pieces of plywood on the top to keep stray cats (or the squirrel overhead) from getting into the kennel area. Then we posted my Boston Terrier 'Piggy' on guard duty.  She loves to chase any cat that moves -other than our own.  Each evening I put the chicks back in the dog crate and we took them inside with us.  Each morning we took them back out to the kennel.  This worked out pretty well except I think the chicks doubled in size during that 4 days (Seriously) so they seemed to be getting a little cramped.

When we finally arrived back home I took the chicks (still in the crate) out to the chicken run.  The last hour of the drive they were making quite a racket so I know they were sick of being cooped up in such a small space.  When I opened the crate door they immediately ran out in flying leaps, peeping like crazy with excitement.  They ran around the chicken run, over to the food and water, then in and out of the coop as excited as kids on Christmas morning!  I could tell they were so thrilled to be back in their big yard and so happy to realize that the dog kennel was not their permanent home.  When it was getting dark they came to me to put them to bed.  Even the Rhode Island Reds came up to me and let me pick them up.  They always run from me so this was totally out of character for them.

I little later I went out to check on them and found them all sitting on their perch for the first time.  "Home Sweet Home" was definitely the mood tonight.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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We've Got Our New Chicks!

Now that my coop and run have finally been built it's time to bring home some Chickens!  I had planned on getting young chickens, at least old enough to go straight to their coop without needing a heat lamp.  I have only heard bad things about heat lamps and coop fires so I wanted to completely avoid that stage.

I knew what breed of birds I was interested in and did some internet searching to find that there is quite a lot of backyard chicken keeping activity going on here in Arizona.  I am also part of an online chicken forum (or two) that has sub-groups for Arizona Chicken keepers within Phoenix and the surrounding communities, so I figured I wouldn't have much trouble finding the breeds I wanted locally.  I was right.  I found a lady that had most of the breeds that wanted, the only problem was that they were only 3-1/2 weeks old.  However, because she lives in Phoenix, where it's already breaking 100 degrees, the chicks were already living outdoors.  The nighttime temps in Phoenix were in the 70's.  Our nighttime temps were still dipping down into the 50's but I figured I could keep the windows and doors on the coop closed in the daytime to build up a good warm temp for nighttime inside the coop.   So I took the chicks home.

We got 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Barred Rocks, and 2 Black Australorps.  We hoped they were all females, but she said I could bring back any Roo's that we discovered later.  She was 90% sure they were all female.  So we packed them up in our dog crate for the drive home.  A few of them were small enough to easily walk through the 1-1/2" wide wires...I had not planned to get chicks this small remember.  Once during the trip I thought I heard a couple of babies peeping a little closer than the dog crate, and sure enough the smaller ones had wondered out and were in a bit of a panic.  I put them back in and we continued on home for the 1-1/2 hour drive.

It was just beginning to get dark as we arrived home.  I read that it is best to introduce chickens to their new home at night so I thought this would be perfect.  I placed the entire dog crate inside the coop and opened the door.  They wondered out to check things out but quickly returned to the crate.  To make sure it was warm enough in the coop I placed my digital outdoor thermostat inside the coop, then placed the indoor portion with the digital display in my bedroom.  The chicken coop is outside our bedroom window so I could hear the chicks if anything happened.  I was as nervous as a new mom bringing her baby home from the hospital.

 I stayed up for hours watching the temperature drop in the coop.  It had suddenly turned cold today and I didn't want to freeze my babies out their first night in their new home.  So the hubby and I reluctantly went out to the coop in the dark with only a flashlight to see and hooked up the heat lamp that a friend had given us 'just in case."  Once we had the lamp securely attached to the rafters, safely away from anything flammable, we went back to bed, at least not worrying about the cold temperatures.  Now we just worried it would get too warm or catch on fire.  We didn't have any experience with heat lamps and really didn't know how much heat they might produce in the coop.

But sleep finally came.  Throughout the night the temperature stayed sufficiently warm for the babies but not enough to burn anything.  I woke up very early to the sound of the babies peeping inside the coop and the slight hint of the sunrise coming in our window.  We made it through our first night as new chicken parents.   I quietly got out of bed and made myself a cup of coffee, then went out to the chicken run to do what I have wanted to do for some time now -watch chickens!  They were so entertaining.  I didn't realize how much I truly missed watching chickens until now.  Even at this young age I could already see some of their little personalities showing.

Today is going to be a very busy day for me because I have to assemble and install my watering system and build a feeder.  I didn't want the chicks pooping and spilling their food and water dishes so I didn't even buy any of the traditional food or water containers.   I hope you will come back again soon to learn about the Chicken Fountain watering system and the PVC Feed dispenser that I built...those two posts will be coming up next!

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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