Chick update, week 2

(Those of you who have raised chicks several times are probably bored by our chick updates.  There's nothing really startling going on yet, but we've only raised chicks once before, so it's relatively new territory for us.  Feel free to skip these "they're growing!" posts if you're not interested.  If you do like them and are a new reader, you can see what our chicks were doing in their first week here.)

By the end of week 2, our chicks got spunky.  They already had the beginnings of wing feathers when I posted last, but now they rounded out their full complement of primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries and started making hop-flights to test their wings.

On day 14 of their stay in the brood box, I walked into their room and found an escaped chick skittering across the floor.  The brood box that had originally seemed so spacious was now a crowded mass of pecking, scratching chicks, and they were clearly feeling cramped.  The next day, two chicks got out, and Mark pushed through the abnormal spring heat to make them a coop.  As always, I'm thrilled by his ability to take a handful of screws and some junk out of the barn and make a utilitarian piece of farm equipment for just a few bucks.

We moved the chicks out to their new coop when they were only 16 to 17 days old.  Depending on who you talk to, you can put your chicks outside somewhere between two and six weeks of age.  This is quite a wide variation and will depend on two main factors.  Your weather is the obvious one --- if you're raising chicks in the winter, you will clearly need to keep them inside longer.  Sex is also important since cockerels generally grow faster and are ready to go out on pasture much quicker than pullets.  As a rule of thumb, chickens should have real feathers, not just fluff, if you're going to put them outside without a light source.

Ours clearly haven't reached that stage yet, so I begged Mark to make a little protected area within the large coop where the chicks could huddle together at night.  He came up with an insulated box that will hold the heat from the brooder lamp for another week or two while our chicks mature.  With the extra heat to run to if they get cold, our chicks adore their dirt-floored coop and are now taste-testing everything within reach.  Sticks, stones, ants, and leaves all met with approval, although I'm not sure if they are actually finding anything with food value yet.

Next week --- pasture!  While you're waiting, be sure check out our homemade chicken waterer, perfect for getting chicks off to a healthy start.