Chicky Progress

I picked me up a sweet box of chicky goodness a couple of weeks ago from a feed store. 

Pic taken on March 25

The breeds are: barred rock, buff orpington, gold sex-link (mix between a rhode island red and a rhode island white) and a blurry ameraucana. These little biddies are already a pleasure to watch, partly because the smallest runtiest one appears to be the most bold and bossy. Since I got the chicks from the feed store, I don't know exactly how old they are. I think a couple of them are now 3 weeks old, and the other two are 4 weeks old. The gals are now starting to look like real miniature chickens...

Pic taken today

Today - enjoying sunshine, grass and fresh breeze.

...which means they are quickly outgrowing their little brooder. It's already warm enough here that I have to turn their heat lamp completely off during the day and temps still reach 85 degrees in the barn shop. Luckily my chicky shack is pretty much complete! Soon I will move these girls in there and get them out of their little brooder. Oliver and I used the plans from Building a Chicken Coop for Dummies and made "The Minimal" due to our lack of carpentry skills. "The Minimal" uses only straight cuts. 

3/25/12

Man power!

And here's the finished product, only missing exterior paint.

Ollie's genius idea, used hinges from some old cabinet doors.

Roof is some plastic looking stuff from Lowes. You can actually cut this with scissors.

 

Besides paint, I also need to find a latch for the chicken door/ramp. I'm also not that confident about the security of the chain lock for the human door. The book recommended it, but I might try to find an alternative if I think of anything that will work. The tall side of the coop is really plain and faces the house, so I might paint some happy little poppies or sunflowers on it. Coop mural sounds promising!