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Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
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4:55p
Last night when I got home, I peeked in on the chicks who were happily chirping away and either eating or huddled together for warmth, some right up under the heat lamp with their feather's all fluffed. Before we went to Philadelphia, Smeg and I had realized that the chics could not be left in their open boxes in the garage. For one thing, they were getting too big. For another, there was no way to protect them. If we closed the door from the outside to the garage, the dog wouldn't be able to get in and out, and if we left it open, they were vulnerable to predators that might get into the garage, like the neighborhood cats. So, we moved them. We built an enclosure under our deck, covered the deck with tarps to keep the rain and wet off them, hung heat lamps from under the deck. We built a little half wall of straw bales all around them then put chicken wire from the straw bales (driven into the straw bales with tent pegs) and stapled it to the deck so they were all fully enclosed. To keep our cats and other's out, we ran one strip of chicken wire across the top of the one open area. Unfortunately, we ran out and used a lenth of screen (like for windows) on the last bit.
Up until now, it worked beautifully. The babies are 2 months and 1 week old, they've got plenty of room to run about, a large box that is their "coop", that is mostly open on the top so that the heat lamp can shine in. We just wanted them to get used to the idea of going into a coop for the night. Despite a few lingering worries about the cold, they were doing wonderfully with the heat lamps.
Last night, despite the 20 degree weather I was grilling steaks on the deck when I heard the chicks making a bit of a ruckus, which happens sometimes, but one of them was seriously squawking. I thought it was hurt, so I asked Smeg to please go out and check on them thinking one had gotten stuck between the coop box and the straw bale. Which happens on occasion. Chickens are not the brightest birds.
( Cut for not happy news )
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