Friday, April 24, 2009

18 Chicken Facts

1. Chicks poop A LOT
2. They will poop anywhere and everywhere (especially in their food and water)
3. If you give them something to sit on (a stick elevated above the floor for roosting) they will prefer to poop there
4. Chicks will waste half of their feed making messes and playing with it
5. Chicks like bugs that fly, a lot! Worms and slugs, not as much (ants are a treat!)
6. Chicks being young are quite oblivious but very friendly and entertaining
7. Chicks reared together will tend to flock together
8. Change the litter in their box (or wherever you raise them) at least every week or week an a half
9. after about the second week they will probably need a bigger box
10. after about the third week (or sooner depending on weather) it is a good time to introduce them to the outside world and let them run about and get some exercise (especially good for broilers that grow very fast and need to stretch)
11. chicks like shiny objects like wedding rings and will peck at them frequently (so far not hard enough to hurt)
12. chicks will quickly learn to trust you and come to you if you hand feed them bugs
13. a frequently handled chicken is calmer when handled in the future 
14. chicks love to explore and take dirt baths
15. chicks love to scratch and can ruin seedlings in your garden if left unattended
16. after about the second week they will start to loose their fluffy feathers and start to grow adult-like feathers
17. chicks poop a lot (said that already) the poop is great in the compost pile - mixing the leftover woodshavings and poop from their box and some fresh cut lawn grass got my compost heap cooking at over 110 degrees
18. keep a thermometer in your chick box for several weeks (they should be at around 90 the first week, 80 the second, 70 the third and around 70 there after until mature) if you accidentally throw your chicken thermometer into the compost heap when cleaning out the chick box pretend like you did it on purpose. Then when you find it a week later when digging for worms for your chicks you can see how well their poop has helped the pile...

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