The Great Chicken Switch
In anticipation of the arrival of a flock of day old chicks in a few days, my husband and I spent the day making some changes in our chicken coops. Several years ago, my husband and my father built a beautiful chicken coop that houses up to 50 chickens. We received our first flock of 28 day-old chicks and raised them in a special cage my husband built over the bathtub in the spare bathroom, because we did not have heat or electricity in the new chicken coop.
A few years later we purchased another flock of chicks and moved the few chickens we still had from the first flock into a smaller coop. We raised the second flock of chicks in the bathtub, too. After cleaning up that mess the second time I vowed I would never raise chickens in the house again.
Last year my husband built a makeshift incubator out of an old cooler and hatched a small flock of chicks from our eggs. (Much to my chagrin, they chicks were in the house again.) The chickens were moved to the large coop, and after loosing two hens to a dog attack, and a battle with Merck's disease that killed about 5, we ended up with 3 roosters and 3 hens. Now if you know anything about chickens, you know that having too many roosters in a hen house can cause all sorts of problems. So, of course, we had to separate our roosters which brings us to the reason why had all this chicken switching going on today.
The 5 happy chickens living in the "Chicken Hilton" (dubbed so by my husband) had to go to the "Retirement Coop" and the rooster living in the "Retirement Coop" had to have a new home built for him, and this was all because "It was the middle of the night." (oops sorry, wrong story). We had to do all this switching around because the "Chicken Hilton" needed to be cleaned and sanitized for the day old chicks. For the first time in the 10 years we have kept chickens, we are actually going to raise our chickens in the chicken house where they belong and not in my house! I am so happy. I will get a walk at least twice a day, because I will have to tend to the chicks. I won't have chicken dust in my house, hence I won't have my nose running constantly because of my allergies, and I won't have to contend with roosters, because we ordered 50 hens! Life is good.
A few years later we purchased another flock of chicks and moved the few chickens we still had from the first flock into a smaller coop. We raised the second flock of chicks in the bathtub, too. After cleaning up that mess the second time I vowed I would never raise chickens in the house again.
Last year my husband built a makeshift incubator out of an old cooler and hatched a small flock of chicks from our eggs. (Much to my chagrin, they chicks were in the house again.) The chickens were moved to the large coop, and after loosing two hens to a dog attack, and a battle with Merck's disease that killed about 5, we ended up with 3 roosters and 3 hens. Now if you know anything about chickens, you know that having too many roosters in a hen house can cause all sorts of problems. So, of course, we had to separate our roosters which brings us to the reason why had all this chicken switching going on today.
The 5 happy chickens living in the "Chicken Hilton" (dubbed so by my husband) had to go to the "Retirement Coop" and the rooster living in the "Retirement Coop" had to have a new home built for him, and this was all because "It was the middle of the night." (oops sorry, wrong story). We had to do all this switching around because the "Chicken Hilton" needed to be cleaned and sanitized for the day old chicks. For the first time in the 10 years we have kept chickens, we are actually going to raise our chickens in the chicken house where they belong and not in my house! I am so happy. I will get a walk at least twice a day, because I will have to tend to the chicks. I won't have chicken dust in my house, hence I won't have my nose running constantly because of my allergies, and I won't have to contend with roosters, because we ordered 50 hens! Life is good.
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