With the weather turning hot and the chicks getting most of their feathers, we decided to move them outside. I also made that decision because when we got back from our trip my desk was completely covered with thick layer of dust. It was quite incredible how much dust the 4 girls generated in one week. It looked as though we were in the middle of a big renovation project and the sawdust had settled all over our office.

I have read articles about free range chickens being raised indoors for the first several weeks (months?) of their lives. The farmers are allowed to do this because they claim it reduces the likelihood of disease or illness in the young hens. Once they open the doors to the outside the hens are so used to their confinement that they are terrified of going outside. Just as an aside, the terminology of being a free range hen states that they have “access to the outside”. This could be a paved yard. You can see a more lengthy post about this here.

Anyhow, when we opened the door to their cage, the girls looked very skeptical. It took some cajoling for them to venture outside. I might have even picked a few of them up and physically moved them. But after a while, they started to explore the yard and scratch and peck and munch to their hearts content.

Although they have grown exponentially, they are still too small to integrate with the big girls. There’s an initial smackdown when you introduce hens into an existing flock. These babies need to get a little bigger to give them a fighting chance. We have the door between our two runs closed off with the babes on one side and the big monsters on the other.

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The Chicken Co-op by Raad Studio could be the closest thing to a Dwell home you could offer your chickens. I would love to see one of these in person. It’s hard to tell from the photo if it is functional as well as beautiful.

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The chicks are just one week old. They now have some feathers sprouting to make tails. Their wing feathers are very developed, and now they are getting more feathers on their shoulders. They are insanely cute and I don’t get a whole lot of work done with them in my office.

More photos to come!

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Here’s a ridiculous video Neil took on my request last night. I was knitting and the chicks were going bonkers trying to capture the “worm”. It was hilarious. The red light is the heat lamp.

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Today we set up lights and Neil took some photos of the chicks while I made sure they didn’t jump off our set. I guess I was the chick wrangler.

So, meet the girls…

The names are a work in progress, and we are only keeping two of these four, so bear with me while we work this out. Also, when you involve a 7 year-old in the naming process, things can get wild. Our friend now has a dog named Party Hat…

So, first off we have Razzmatazz (Lindsay was drawing with a Crayola crayon by that name). The name has some spunk, but doesn’t easily roll off the tongue. Besides, can chickens make jazz hands? Razzy is a Plymouth Barred Rock. You can look at my earlier post to see links of what all these gals will look like as adults.

Second is Stripey. This is definitely *not* going to be the final name if I have any control over this. Both of these little ones kind of resemble penguins with their white bibs. She is also a Barred Rock. So far these two are the bossiest of the bunch. Stripey is showing signs of pasty butt, which can be life-threatening. This is when the droppings aren’t soft and kind of block up and “paste over” their bottoms. You have to remove what you see on the outside and keep the plumbing moving. If it makes a plug, the chick can die. I saw a looser

Third off is Midnight. She’s a Blue Andalusian, although she’s probably going to be black and not what is considered blue. She’s the most mild-mannered little sweetheart. She’s one of the ones I’m fostering and I will have a tough time parting with her. She was the little one who I was so worried about when I first opened the box. She looks like a little wild bird and not a chicken. She’s doing very well.

And last of all is Edie jr. She’s an Easter Egger who we got to replace our beloved chicken Edie who died last summer. This one is quite a character. She seems very independent and feisty. So it will be fun to see how they develop.

And how insanely cute are those fuzzy butts??

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Today was the big day. Our peeps arrived in their little boxed nest in the mail. It’s so funny to have a peeping box handed to you. I was glad to hear the peeping because I was very anxious about them during their journey. It was extremely hot here yesterday, which adds stress to an already stressful journey. Fatalities can occur, which is extremely sad. Fortunately my gals seemed to be fine.

Once I opened the box, I dipped their tiny beaks into the water dish to help rehydrate them and to let them know where their water source is. One seemed a little sluggish, but I kept giving her water and she seems to have perked up nicely. Those are marbles in the water dish, which keep them from falling in the water their first week and drowning.

They all kind of look the same right now, but there are 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks, which have a white dot on their heads. There’s one with a little orange on her, who is our Easter Egger, and the little black one is the Blue Andalusian. It turns out that the blue color only happens 50% of the time. Unless something changes when she gets her true feathers (which I don’t anticipate) this little gal will stay black. But, hey, black is still a very chic color here in NYC!

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I knew that there had to be videos on YouTube for how to dust your chickens for mites, but I never could seem to find one. Here are a few videos that are very helpful.

Dusting or Powdering a hen

Doing the “Shake and Bake” method

Shows a serious mite infestation

red mites

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Here’s a great article from the NY Times that a friend forwarded me. It sums up chicken keeping in New York perfectly.

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