Barred Rock Chickens and my New Incubator

I thought it might be time to post some more pictures of the backyard, since things have changed quite a bit since I last wrote.

Here's Alaska, still feeling like she runs the place but in fact keeping a measured distance from actual proceedings.

Here are the barred rock chicks I hatched in my home made incubator recently. They may be oblivious to the fact, but I think these are the guys who actually run the place!

And they're getting pretty friendly, more than happy to approach me when I go out back to see them.

Since I've just auctioned my incubator on trademe, I decided to get this new incubator for my next hatch. She's the one in the foreground, a pekin chick. My plan is destined to fail if this wee chick is a boy...come on wee thing, future generations are relying on you!

It looks like there are only two, but in fact there are three barred rock chicks behind the pekin bantam. These were bought in order to make sure I wasn't left with only one female from my previous hatch. I don't want one lonely barred rock hen. I'm having trouble sexing my barred rock chicks, so I have these to make sure. Plus I traveled during my chicks' early childhood and missed out, so it's good to have a second go at raising them with the leftover medicated feed I bought.

And finally here's Alaska paying me a visit while I'm mothering my chicks. She's acting uninterested here so that she can gain my trust and get a minute alone with the chicks. No, actually she's very good around chickens. I'm glad New Zealand doesn't have the predators they have over in the US. I find my chickens can usually fend off even the meanest looking kitties. I doubt they'd have the same success against a fox or some such.

Thanks for reading my post, now you're up to date on my back yard.

Come again :)

Sexing Barred Rock Chicks

Since my chicks are now five weeks old I figure it's time to try and guess their sex. In New Zealand you can keep roosters in your back yard as long as they don't make any noise. Since I haven't discovered a humane way to keep my boys quiet I won't be able to keep them, so this is an important moment. I often joke that their first crow will be their last, but secretly I'm quite unhappy about the reality of that fact.

I've been going through a phase of believing that I have three boys and only one girl. This is largely based on the fact that one of my chicks looks distinctly different from the rest.

Look at the colour of the chick on the right, "she" is much darker than the other three which look like her friend in the picture there. No, she's not just sitting in a shadow there :) Also, she acts more feminine in my opinion. She's a bit shy, she's a bit more attractive and not as lanky as her boy friends.

So I've read posts on other websites that say you can tell a Barred Rock hen's sex even from their first week based on some distinctive markings. The females have a smaller more distinct yellow dot on their head, and darker trouser fronts. The males have a more smudged dot, with grey trouser fronts. Well looking at my photos I see a lot of smudgy dots which supports our theory that they are mainly boys.

BUT! Since they're a bit older now, there are other indicators starting to appear. One of our chicks is developing a distinctive boy's tail! Once he gets some plumage back there it will be fairly obvious which sex he hails from. Using this marker leads me to believe we have one male and three females, which is what I would have liked to believe from the start and would dearly like to be true!

So I shall wait and see what other signs develop before I draw my final conclusions... wish me luck!

Please leave a comment if you have some information about figuring this thing out that might help me.

Building a Chicken Coop - Part 1

Hatching eggs has lead me to a tricky situation. While I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, I do want to be prepared for chicks if they do arrive. Like many other things, chicken coops sell for too much on trademe in my opinion. So I've decided to start building a chicken coop. Maybe if I get around to it I might be able to build a few extra to sell and lower the average price of coops on trademe.

So this is part one of my chicken coop building antics.

Here is my current chicken coop and run which houses my shaver hens.

My current chicken coop and run.

Here is the area where I will make my second chicken run, you can see I've begun work by laying down a large beam of pine and a couple of round uprights. I'll attach some netting to the front of this and perhaps a door on the left so I can get in to clean and add water.

The area reserved for my new chicken run which is dangerously close to the vegetable garden!

I plan to modify my existing coop which is big enough to house more than the current two chickens. In order to keep the chickens apart rather than disrupting the pecking order, I'll probably make it two story, and give the new arrivals the bottom floor. I made the mistake of allowing my first chickens to sleep where they lay, so they'll probably do that for the rest of their lives. I won't make the same mistake with the new chickens, who will have ample perching space.

The chicken coop that my girls are currently using. They are much younger in this picture than now.

Good luck if you're building a coop. The good thing about chickens is they're not at all fussy, you can house them just about anywhere. Buying an expensive coop may make you feel better, but they won't thank you for it!

I'll post part two shortly which will hopefully include pictures of the finished coop and run, modified for its future occupants. Hopefully you're inspired to build your own chicken coop now, rather than paying all your hard earned pennies to someone on trademe!