Sexing Barred Plymouth Rock Chicks

When we chose a chick breed I wanted something I could sex on my own at day one. Barred Plymouth Rocks had great reviews for laying eggs, for meat and the best part is there were characteristics you can use to sex the chicks at day one! 

1. The head spot

not always the best and most reliable way to sex the chick but about 80% of our birds hold true to this method. 

2. The leg & feet color

This is about 95% accurate (I may be coming up with these numbers) I say this because I have a couple birds who have dark legs and light "toes" so we are going with pullet but they could end up being roosters full grown... time will tell.

3. Feathers

Ours are as young as one week old and their feathers are a confirmation of their sex

I did a quick video for you all, if you have Barred Plymouth Rocks I hope this is useful for you!

Bringing our Chicks Home - The First 24 Hours

We originally planned for 6-8 chicks and the hatch unfortunately failed so we ended up ordering from a hatchery. The thing with ordering from a hatchery is you need to order a MINIMUM of TWENTY-FIVE chicks! 

So we did...

Ha! Yes, we did! We ordered 25 Barred Plymouth Rock Chicks, why this breed? Because they are a dual purpose. Therefore, I ordered unsexed (which is cheapest) and we will keep the hens for laying and the roos for food! We will be butchering them at 18-20 weeks old.  

 Brielle is in love with chickens! In fact she thinks all birds are chickens and will run across the road to chase a "chicken" 

She named her chicky baby, Chickaletta, of course from the famous purse chicken on Paw Patrol.

 Adalie named her little chicky baby Lily. She was lucky to have show and tell at school Friday morning and took her little chick, Rylan's chick (ie Diamond) and mama's chick (un-named)

Our first twenty four hours went great! We found out our brooder was too small, switched for a little larger brooder for a temporary fix. We also had about 4-6 chicks with pasty butt, which happens from eating wood chips or being too hot. We fixed it by cleaning their little bums and adding a little Vasoline. We played around with fermented food, and much more... check out our video on the first 24 hours of having chicks!

 

 We have four kids who love these little guys! Stay tuned for more of our chicken adventures to come!

Building Our Chicken Coop Part 2 - Demo Day - Removing Hopper Bottom

My Mother's Day was spent in a 'not-so-normal' way - and I loved every minute of it.

My family was so sweet to me, and after a morning of amazing breakfast and little homemade gifts we set off to the coop to demo the bottom of the grain bin, our future chicken coop. 

I forgot to take pictures and had only taken video of the day.

I can not wait to start building and finish up the coop before the chickens are here to use it!

Building our chicken coop!

 We are so sad to report our chicks we were supposed to get May 2nd didn't work out. The breeder's hatch didn't go well so unfortunately we missed out. We have some other options in the works!

For Mother's Day weekend my husband moved our new coop! An old wooden grain bin from the Alberta Wheat Pools that were knocked down in the 90's. A local seed farmer who got them was selling them for $100 each! We snatched one up and waited for a nice weekend to move the bin to my sister's farm.

We marked our bin a few weeks back... Bin #4

My awesome husband, who humors my crazy ideas, and my crazy excited kids! 

My beautiful baby girl just loved picken those dandelions while we got the bin ready to move

Driving the bin home! 

Well it took us a few hours, most of the afternoon actually, but my husband was awesome and got the bin to its new home! Now let the transforming begin!!! 

Check out our youtube video on the journey through the move! The most fun part was driving it "home" We are so excited to start building! Stay tuned for more to come!!

WE ARE GETTING CHICKENS!!

After years of wanting chickens, we are FINALLY getting chickens! Follow us on our journey along the way as us "newbies" learn the ropes of having chickens!

We are getting 8 little chicks MAY 8TH!!!

We have set up our DIY Brooder and discuss how we built it for under $100! 

Check it out!

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