Still awaiting The Call from the feed store announcing that the bebeh chicks have arrived. I broke down and phoned them this morning, just to double-check. (We are on Island Time out here. Sometimes it’s best to double-check.)
I’ve occupied myself by setting up the brood box in the living room. The brood box is where the chicks will live for the next two months, give or take. It’s a cozy place, heated by a light bulb hanging in a metal reflector, to keep them warm until their Real Feathers grow in.
It’s huge, isn’t it?! One of the great things about being single is that, e.g., one doesn’t have to have a discussion about whether or not baby chicks will be raised in a giant box right next to the couch. They just WILL.
I built that box all by myself, by the way. I’m very proud! You would be too, if you’d seen some of my previous exercises in carpentry over the years. The box is 3 x 2 x 2, made from scrap lumber, screened on the outside with some leftover fencing, and with an inner layer of fiberboard to block the entry of drafts and inquisitive paws.
According to the original plans I drafted, the lid would have a locking hasp on one side, and hinges on the other. According to reality, the lid is about half an inch wider than the box, so it’s held on by bungee cords. Whatever.
I spent two days monitoring the temperature until I was satisfied I’d gotten the light bulb wattage right. I have a secondary indoor/outdoor temp gauge that I’ll use for this. It has a remote sensor, so I can put the sensor inside the brood box, and keep the monitor at my desk.
Meanwhile, I finished the first pair of Combo Sox.
Joke’s on me: the color I picked for the second strand doesn’t actually match until you get all the way to the toes. I guess I could have unwound the skein until I found the right color to start with. But I just didn’t care that much.
I started a second pair of Combo Sox. This is one strand of my hand-dyed yarn in the “Brought Across” colorway, and one strand of Knit Picks Gloss in black. I call them “Goth Sox.” Love it!
OH. Just after I posted this, I opened an email from a high school friend who sent me an old school picture.
I marveled for several minutes. How did I ever get my hair to do that? It must have taken HOURS, that’s all I can say. Although you can see some of its True Nature squirrelling out in the lower left-hand side of the picture.
That’s also the blondest I’ve ever gotten it. Sad, no? In order to obtain that color, I had to use the whitest blond I could find. Repeatedly.
I am so excited! What kind of chicks did you order? Can you recommend any websites for reading about raising chickens? Have you built a coop for your yard? How much space do they need?
I’m still prepping my Big Chicken Post, but Patti has an awesome round-up of links here: http://www.genteelrecessionista.com/?p=516
Awesome! Thank you. I am looking forward to living vicariously through your chicken experience. Until I get the guts to order my own!
My mother was a teacher, but when my parents adopted me she quit that job and stayed home until I was eight. Since she was never one to sit still, she raised chickens during those years. I have many fond and not-so-fond memories of chickens in the brooder sheds and the barn and the new henhouse she had built. The wire baskets of eggs collected every day. The cases of eggs she delivered to the local egg merchant. The egg-washing machine — that was AWESOME!
An acquaintance of ours who lives in the country but works in the city has horses and chickens and guinea fowl and other assorted livestock. When I heard him say several years ago that it gave him a feeling of security to have dinner running around in the yard I thought he was a little nuts. Which he is, but I am starting to understand his thinking. Apparently he was just a man ahead of his time.
I hope your cat (dangit, can’t remember his name) isn’t looking at that brood box and thinking, “Yess! take-out food!”
I really wanted to burn the old photographs of myself (especially my 7th grade photo) but my mom said “not on your life” and swept them up and HID them somewhere so I couldn’t. (Well, at least she doesn’t use the internet so there’s no way she could post them somewhere)
I like the socks! Awesome chick house!
OMG! Chicks! Cute for a few days, then ugly till the feathers grow in. I dealt with turkey chicks in grad school (we won’t go there cause it will upset people).
Won’t the smell get to you inside? Cool project. Are you going to name them all? Can’t wait to read the updates.
I think baby birds with pin feathers are sooo ugly, they are cute. I also would not think they will stink unless you dont clean out the dropping. I have a parrot and that is the only time he stinks.
Also will the temp get too high with the chicadee’s inside the box?