And Then There Were Chicks

Our new chick brooder, made from an old foot locker we had on hand

 The first Thistle Patch Project has begun in earnest! The Missus and I went out and got ourselves six baby chicks that will eventually go into our backyard and provide us with some wonderful eggs (and possibly meat, too, depending on how attached we get to the birds).  They are currently nestled into their brooder box and happily doing their baby chick thing.

The first thing we had to do to get these chicks was get the brooder set up.  A brooder is a special type of pen where chicks are raised for the first 4-12 weeks of their lives.  In our case, the brooder is little more than a foot locker with a heat lamp, pine shavings, food, and water so that the chicks will be healthy and happy until they grow old enough to be moved out to a chicken coop in the backyard.  The footlocker was something that we had on hand already and my mother-in-law gave us a feeder, but we got the rest of the equipment from the Tractor Supply Company, located down in Galt, CA.  They were a pleasant store to work with and the staff were pretty knowledgeable.

After getting the equipment, it was time to get home and set up the brooder box.  Overall, it was a very simple process.  I lined the box with pine shavings for bedding, placed the food and water, and then adjusted the heat lamp so that one end of the box stayed at around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing the chicks to move into and out of the heat, as needed to regulate their own temperatures.  It was very easy, and I had the whole thing done in less than an hour, including clearing a space in our spare bedroom to set up the box in the first place.

Our little chicks are enjoying their new home.

We got the chicks themselves from the Natural Trading Company up in Newcastle, CA.  The Missus and I decided to go with them because they are a local, certified organic farm where we could see how the chicks were raised instead of ordering them through the mail and hoping that they got to us in one piece.  We were impressed with the place and everyone was very friendly and willing to go out of their way to help us.  The chicks themselves are the Delaware breed, although the man at the farm said there may be some Partridge Chanticlers mixed in there, too.  Both breeds are known for both egg and meat production.  We also got them in a straight run, meaning that the chicks were not sexed and we may have both pullets (girls) and cockerels (boys) in the batch.  Unfortunately, since the City of Sacramento does not allow the keeping of male chickens inside city limits, that means that if there are any males in our new flock, we will have to either give them away or sell them when they are old enough for us to tell the gender.  This is also part of why we got six chickens instead of the three that Sacramento says is the maximum for our urban backyard.  We figured that between potential attrition and "undesirable" gender, we should end up with a flock of three chickens in our backyard, ready to supply us with eggs, compost, lawn cleanup, and hopefully a lot of fun!