Coop and chick pictures at 3 weeks old

The new coop was designed in two separate units that stand next to each other (with an unfortunate gap due to uneven ground). Both units have large access doors for easy cleaning. One unit has a ramp leading downstairs, the chicken door to the outside, and only one nesting box so that there's room for food/water downstairs. The other unit is solely roosting bars and nesting boxes. If I ever want to expand the coop, I can just make another unit like the second and slot it in. MORE CHICKENS

Coop from the short side. Top story is all solid plywood, with two short windows to let air through but not blow directly on the birds when they're roosting. Bottom story is plywood on long sides and hardware cloth on short sides.

Top level, unit with ramp. (Door over ramp is closed for now so they don't fall and hurt themselves.)

Top level, unit with just roosting bars. The bucket has water. Food is in the back. The blue fabric strips are a "wool hen" that they can cuddle under for warmth/comfort.

Bottom level with 4 nesting boxes and ramp.

It also opens on the other side for easy access to eggs.

And here are the chicks themselves. Their wing feathers are mostly in and they have short tail feathers. Most of them have developed feathers on their shoulders and along the sides of their chests. It's so much fun watching them develop - totally worth the babying they needed during the first two weeks. Compare these photos to the ones from two weeks ago.

Black Japanese Bantam (5)

Red Pyle Game Bantam (started with 3, now 2)

Black Silkie Bantam (2)

Blue Silkie Bantam (3)

White Silkie Bantam (1)

Buff Orpington (1)

Black Star (1)

Cuckoo Maran (so pretty!!) (1)

Silver Laced Wyandotte (1)

Easter Egger (seems to be the oldest as she has the most feathers) (1)

Speckled Sussex (gorgeous feathers) (1)

Unknown freebies (5)

Golden Sebright Bantam (started with 9, now 5)

New chicks - pictures!

How they were shipped

Golden Sebright (started with 9, now 7)

Blue Silkie (3)

Black Silkie (2)

White Silkie (1)

Black Japanese (5)

Red Pyle Game (3)

Cuckoo Maran (1)

Silver Laced Wyandotte (1)

Black Star (1)

Buff Orpington (1)

Speckled Sussex (1)

Easter Egger (1) (sold as "Ameraucana")

Mystery chick with black/gray dye spot on head (5). Might be Leghorn, White Rock, or male Red Sex Link. Probably all males since they were included for free.

New chicks!

In the midst of dealing with the non-functionally brooding hen last month, I decided to just order chicks to bring up the number of egg layers. Of course when you get chicks, you still have to wait 5-6 months to get eggs, but they're just so darn cute and fun to raise. Also Sherry wanted to get more Golden Sebrights and was having trouble finding pullets, and wasn't sure about raising a bunch of straight run chicks and having to deal with the roosters. I offered to include enough Sebrights in my order that she would probably get 3-4 hens, and to raise them for her and deal with the roos. (Yum.)

I ordered from Murray McMurray Hatchery as they have a good selection and reputation, never mind the odd name. Their minimum for bantams was 15. I decided to make some of those Silkies, as they have a reputation for being good brooders and mama hens, and that would be useful for next time I'm low. Then the joy of ordering rare breeds overcame me. I also purchased 2 Black Japanese and 2 Red Pyle Games, hoping that 1 of each would be a hen. (Obviously I'm not so attached that I ordered enough to guarantee a hen - I won't be heartbroken if I get 4 males instead.)

Even though the number of bantams reached the minimum of 15, the hatchery still sent me a number of extras. I ended up with 6 Silkies, 9 Golden Sebrights, 5 Black Japanese, and 3 Red Pyle Game. That's 23 bantams!

And in the side of the box that contained the standards, they included 5 chicks of the same unknown breed. Most likely they're all roos. So I have 11 new standards chickens.

They spent the first two nights in my bathroom with a heat lamp turned on. 2 of the Golden Sebrights died. The bantams are definitely less hardy than the standards. They had trouble with balancing, chilled more easily, and many had pasty butts. They're catching up and started jumping around in the box. This morning I moved them out to a brand new coop, inside the same run as the existing flock. At first I put the head lamp inside, but fortunately they didn't need it for long. It's 95 degrees out now. I made them a "wool hen" where they can huddle for warmth. Pictures of the coop coming soonish.

Washing raw wool #2

Time for the "cream" colored wool to go through soaking in detergent and rinsing:

The raw wool, gross but not nearly as bad as the gray one.

First sink full of wash water, again not as bad as before.

After first wash, it is... white!

Clean raw wool. Again there is a slightly greasy feel to it still, but less than the gray wool. It does still have little specks of black dirt here and there.

Washing raw wool

At one of the local yarn stores that Sherry and I stopped at after Fenzi Camp, we found raw wool for sale. It was only $1 per oz, so I grabbed a big bag of 10 ounces to experiment with washing and carding. Half was dark brown with lighter edges, and half was cream.

I decided to tackle the dark brown wool first. Per the instructions the store had given me, I filled the sink with hot water and a small amount of detergent, covered the sink to keep the heat in, and left it until the water was lukewarm.

This was the resulting water:

And this was the resulting... gray wool??

Soak it in plain hot water to rinse. This was the water:

And this was the wool:

Second round. Wash water:

Wool:

Rinsed, then third round of wash water:

And final rinse water, almost clear:

Final wool:

The brown tips are still there, but it's mostly gray. Wow. It still has a slightly greasy feel when I rub it between my fingers, and unfortunately that's what's going to happen when I spin it. The directions stated that washing soda would get rid of grease, though you have to be careful as it will damage the fiber if left in contact for too long. I don't have any on hand but I'll pick it up and do another soak/rinse eventually.

I'm curious to see how the "cream" colored wool will turn out.

Homemade ramen

Some time back, Eli and Rachel treated me to a big bowl of homemade ramen. They had made it by simmering pork feet for 24 hours, making a gelatinous, fatty broth. It was amazing. I do not have the patience to stand at a stove for more than 20 minutes, so I decided to make a pressure cooker version. I used the pork feet, chicken wings, sauteed onions, and thumb-sized piece of ginger.

The result was not as gelatinous as Eli's broth, but close enough.

Plop that onto some store bought udon noodles.

After microwaving and adding a soft boiled egg. Just look at all that fat floating on the surface. Yum! (Also added scallions after the picture.)

The thumb-sized piece of ginger was too much - I could pick out the taste in the finished soup. Next time I will use half that, and also two smaller onions or one large one, rather than the two large onions I'd found. Other than that, it's a delicious hot meal!