Who can resist those little chicks?

So I mentioned earlier that we had gotten new chicks back in February. 13 in all. They are almost 8 wks old now. We have 3 buff rocks, 2 speckled sussex, 2 Polish, 2 Rhode Island Red, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Easter Eggers (mixed Ameracauna breeds, for production only) and we got a mystery chick that has turned out to be a white frizzle bantam Cochin. Here's a couple of pics of them now:


As if these guys weren't enough for us, we were sad that none of our bantams that we ordered from the hatchery made it through the mail. So last week the local feed store got some, and we came home with these:

They include 3 assorted frizzle bantams and 2 assorted English Game bantams. The only one we actually know the breed so far, is the little grey guy. That one is a Self Blue English Game bird. The other four will remain a mystery for awhile longer. Here are more photos of the two Old English Game:

Just to show you how small these guys are! Here's the Self Blue bird in my hand, sorry for the poor quality photo:

Of the 3 frizzles, two of them are the same, mostly dark with light underbellies. The third has more yellow up it's chest and on it's face. It also has a unique dark spot on one side of it's beak. All three are feather footed. Here are the "twins":

And the one we are calling Spot is on the bottom left in this pic:


We are hoping to start the new coop tomorrow, as all of these guys can't fit in our current accomodations! The week after this one is spring break, and that will be our major focus that week. We have acquired 18 free pallets off of Freecycle, and plan to use them for the main body of the coop. I will post pics when construction gets underway!

Chicken Runs

We worked on our chicken runs today for a bit. Chicken runs are the outdoor area attached to the coop, where the chickens can step outside and hunt for bugs and get some sunshine. Ours have gotten so muddy and gross because they are not covered, so I bought some tarps to cover them with. My husband came out to help me construct a support for the big run, to help with water runoff when it rains. You don't want to have the water pool up on the tarp, as it can cause a lot of weight and pull down your whole run if you are not careful! So now our little coop area looks a bit like a shanty town, but hopefully it will help dry them out a bit.

I was reading on www.backyardchickens.com to see what else you can do to prevent the run area from getting so muddy. One recommendation I read, was to wait until summer, and the dirt/mud all gets rock hard from the baking sun, and then bring in as much sand as you can, at least 4-6" to cover the whole run area. The birds love to take their dust baths in the sand, and it shouldn't muddy up when the rains come. They said not to add sand to the mud, or it will just sink in and disappear. The trick is waiting until the mud dries up nice and hard. I'm hoping to try this method, if fund allow for us the get the sand trucked in here later in the summer. Living in the Pacific Northwest, mud is a constant battle from October-June. So it will be great if it works!