Not much has changed with the chicks other than the fact that they are looking a bit awkward with partial feathers and fluff. It is pretty cool to see, it’s like the feathers form out of nowhere. Also, some of the feathers coming in are really dark brown. I tried to get pictures of it the other day. Oh, and they are getting BIGGER by the day!!!
Last week, I mentioned to Todd that the 4 chicks ate only 2 cups of their starter feed. Well, just 5 days after that, they ate another 2 cups. This means they are eating more! And when they eat more, they poop more.
Todd had a good idea to put them into a bigger area, and since doing so, they are so much more animated. They chase each other around, and they flap their wings a bit more. They can jump about an inch off the ground to get in top of their food/water dishes.
Speaking of water dish. We may be investing in something else to give them water in. They make such a mess in their water dish. Todd read online that people have trained their chicks to drink out of a hamster/rabbit water bottle. We may be doing this in the future. For now, the dish works fine.
Looking at the bag of food we bought them, we MAY need to get another bag before they are 10 weeks old if they continue to be little piggies. Only time will tell.
I have given them pieces of potatoes and apples along with their oatmeal this week. They didn’t really take to the apple so much, but the potato disappeared over night.
So far, we are holding strong at $24.95 for the chicks.
Oh wait…that’s not true. I forgot. Todd bought supplies to make the chicken coop. It was a bit of an investment that I’m not sure this first batch of chicks could pay for by their egg production. We have about $105 in supplies for the coop so far (EEK! I know. But like Todd said, he wanted to make it sturdy so we can keep chicks from here on out.)
Since you are using the plastic bowls, maybe you could cut holes in the side, just for their heads and put the lid on the bowl. Of course, you don't want them to get in and drown. They kick stuff into the water. So, if you elevate the bowl just slightly, they won't scratch dirt into it. That is how I have solved that problem.
ReplyDeleteI bought the 10x10x6 foot dog fence and have that huge investment because I don't have a builder on premise. $239.
But, eggs to save money was not my motivation even though I figured the cost vs eggs and still do.