New Chicks!

Sunday we received our Murray McMurray shipment of chicks. Dark Cornish, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, and White Crested Black Polish chicks, plus a free exotic chick make up this recent shipment. The Dark Cornish I plan to raise as broilers like the flock I have on the pasture now. The other breeds I plan to keep as layers.

In our first flock, we received a white crested black polish chick as our free exotic chick. Unfortunately, it died. Nicholas thought it was cute, so when choosing birds to keep around, we decided to get a few of those.

Unlike the last order from Murray McMurray, this one arrived after only a day and a half of travel and I only lost two chicks within the first 48 hours. All and all a success.

Chicks in the brooder with Gimpy.

The Freedom Ranger chicks arrived this morning. They almost tower over the Dark Cornish chicks. All arrived in an energetic state after their two day travel through the postal system. I brought them home and let them drink and eat fruit before heading out to the brooder.

Half of the newly arrived Freedom Ranger flock.

My clever scheme also allowed me time to eat breakfast. The chicks seemed so energetic that I decided they could go straight out instead of spending the night with us. Nicholas helped me pack them back into their shipping box and off we went. Once in the brooder they quickly made themselves at home and began mingling with the other chicks. They also began darting around like pinballs.What a great way to start the day!

Give Me Land, Lots of Land...

Despite the PicknChickn Application's description of the Cornish as lazy, my dark Cornish seem quite willing and excited to explore for food. True, they do not tolerate mid-day heat very well and tend to find a shady spot to sit, but when they do forage about, they roam fairly far. Luckily the neighbor has not complained and having the fresh manure near the barn scratched through is good.

Regalo and Louis appreciate the chickens for a couple of reasons. Their favorite thing about the pastured chickens seems to be the corn/oat mix left behind the hoop house. Decreased flies are their other favorite aspect of sharing the pasture with chickens, though I cannot say the horses necessarily realize the correlation. Nonetheless, I no longer think Louis needs that $80 Baker fly sheet.

Yenti has a Kitten

A few weeks ago we brought Nike home. For reference, the owner of the mother studies Latin and gave them all Roman names, but I prefer the Greek pronunciation Nee-Kay.

Nike seemed like a possible snack to the hounds and pure trouble for Chorni. She spent her first week with us locked in the bathroom for her protection. Nicholas brought her out one afternoon and laid down on the bed with her to read. Yenti also climbed on the bed. While Nicholas read, Nike wandered over to the greyhound. Once Nicholas realized she'd gone around him, he sat up, but found Yenti playing with the kitten. Thus began a friendship.

Chorni still demonstrates that herding cats can be done, sort of. And Jatamer doesn't really care for Nike much, but he doesn't try to eat her. In fact, this whole time, he's been very perceptive that his pack leaders would punish him if he tried to eat the kitten. Nike's initial response to explore instead of run away also helps fight back Jatamer's strong "must eat small furry thing" instincts. If the small furry thing does not run, he cannot chase.

Nike acts a bit like a dog, which will prove good. For instance, she follows the humans around, she comes when called, and she helps Yenti eat her dog food. After all of this, I doubt Nike will spend much time as a barn cat until (because it probably will happen in her lifetime) we move to a farm.

The Devastation of Design Flaws

Last Wednesday I learned the power of the wind.

My chicks roam the pasture near their hoop house with very little disturbance. Their first day or so they had the protection of a mocking bird. That sounds silly, perhaps, but a pair of mocking birds nest in a pine tree near the driveway on one side of the pasture and one almost always sits vigilant on the power line running over that length of pasture. Mocking birds make a great fuss whenever a threat approaches, and I believe this warning protects my flock from raptors. The red blinking lights Hal recommended seem to keep out owls at night and the electric fence, and I suspect, the horses keep out unwanted canines and varmints. However, none of these protections stood against the wind or the stupidity of the chickens on Wednesday.

I arrived that afternoon to find the hoop house a few yards away from the pen. I also noticed something else, which I tried to ignore driving in, opening the gates: silence and stillness. As I walked up the hill I caught the faint smell of death.


 The wind pushed the hoop house over the fence, but the birds did not follow their home. No, instead they remained in the full sun of a very hot afternoon. Their waterers had been smashed by the hoop house, their feeder knocked over. The toppled feeder seemed like a good, shady place to some chickens. Chickens, being worse than sheep at thoughtlessly following each other to death, piled into the feeder.


 Several died in the feeder. Some apparently died from being run over by the hoop house, and others remained near death's door due to heat exhaustion from what I could tell. Panicking, I decided to water them first, and then retrieve the grove tent. After what felt like an eternity of fumbling with the tent in the wind, I gave up and went back to the barn to get a box. I called Nicholas and began sobbing. The challenge of trying to save the rest seemed overwhelming. I felt the worst sense of helplessness and guilt. Nicholas left his office and headed for the barn, a trip that would take at least forty minutes.

Feeling some relief that reinforcement was on the way, I collected my wits and grabbed our chicken crate (very large Amazon.com box) and went to gather survivors. By this point, those relatively healthy drank water and rested. I began gathering the ones not strong enough to stand. I chose a couple very bad off ones, and after delivering the first load to the hoop house, I made the decision to only gather birds I thought might recover.

At this point a few thoughts went through my mind. First, if the hoop house looked like a covered wagon and those were compared with ships on the prairie, then this seemed like a ship wreck without a lifeboat. Watching the ones barely alive made me wonder what shepherds carry to quickly kill suffering sheep. Did they carry something like the ax of the Royal Cavalry's farrier? I wished I had a sharp thing like that to quickly end their pain. 

When Nicholas arrived (still in a tie, btw) I stood in the doorway of the hoop house, keeping the wind from blowing it anymore with all but about six of the surviving birds. Six left out had water and some shade, but were well enough to evade me. Instead of chasing them and making them more hot, I decided to leave them and round them up later.

We modified the house (cut a door on the other end) and weighted it down with a bag of gravel at each entrance. We also hung the feeder so that if the wind does move the hoop house again, the feeder will not topple over giving a false sense of security to any hot chicks. Then we set about gathering and counting the dead. One bird seemed about to die for over an hour, and Nicholas suspected the hoop house ran over it. Nicholas did what I'd cowardly avoided, and finished the bird with a knife. We lost nearly 40 birds out of about 98. To avoid attracting vultures, we buried them in the compost pile.

I am relieved to report that despite the very weak state of some chicks that made it to the hoop house that afternoon, no more died that night. We did not lose another bird from those that initially survived.

The lesson here, dear readers, is to take the extra time and think about how your design will function, even in the wind. Honestly, we thought the structure too heavy to move like that, but the plastic provided enough area for the wind to exert force and move the house several feet. Another lesson may be to show humbleness. I felt punished for my hubris thinking myself clever for not losing any chicks to varmints after so many people talked about coyotes and owls and skunks. Only one person warned of wind, but very subtly.

Moving Day

Nicholas and I moved the hoop house from the barn yard to the pasture proper. Unfortunately, this involved dragging it quite a ways because it would not fit through the narrow gate directly joining the enclosures. The already too long journey was made worse by the heat of the early afternoon.

We managed to catch/herd most of the chicks to the new hoop house location. About thirty holed up under a cedar tree along the fence line. After HOURS of attempting to catch all of them, twenty still remained. Hot, dehydrated, hungry and generally irritated we drove home for a couple of hours. Nicholas inquired with Hal as to the chances the chicks might find their own way to the new location. He shared his doubt that the chicks would be "inclined" to find the hoop house on their own. 

Nicholas and I drove back around dusk and found the chicks much more willing to leave the cedar tree. Working in tandem, we drove the chicks up the hill to the new location. Only one proved to be dim witted, even for a chicken. After a few minutes he finally managed to find his way through the fence. The day ended with all of the chicks with the hoop house on fresh pasture.

My only regret is not having a camera to capture Nicholas' absurd crouching posture he assumed to herd the chicks. At this point, I also think the story would do well with illustrations akin to the wonderful Hyperbole and a Half blog.

Week Four

I ordered dark cornish chicks from Murray McMurray in April. After a bit of a rough start, we have around 98 chicks running amok in the brooder. With a lot of help, tried and true advice, and some luck, this will not be my last pastured flock.

The older chicks started playing King of the Waterer last week. This week more joined in the poultry games. The older chicks turn 4 weeks old Friday. We originally planned to turn them onto the pasture this weekend, but our plastic sheeting will not arrive until next week. Ah, delays.

The hoop house frame looks great thanks to Nicholas' hard work and Hal's wise advice. Once we finish the hoop house I will write a post showing each step of the construction.