The chickens are doing well. They’re about eleven weeks old now and they seem healthy and happy. Here they are eating some tasty scratch grain mixed in with their regular feed.
I’ve still got them on starter/grower feed. They should be switching to layer feed around late september or in october.
This is the BLT with avocado sandwich from Time Deli on Bascom in San Jose. I ordered it on marbled rye bread, which I love, and I’m always happy to find a place that serves it.
Time Deli has been around for years, located near the clean working class Burbank neighborhood. The spot draws an inclusive crowd, which might include business suits and painters overalls together in the same lunch line.
The BLT is an excellent sandwich, and the huge dill pickle for an extra dollar is a good addition. The bacon was thick and perfectly cooked, and they didn’t overdo it. I love bacon, but I want my BLT to have a good ratio of tomatoes and lettuce to compliment the meat so that it’s more than just a pile of bacon between bread. These guys have nailed it. Also an important factor, the avocado consists of actual slices of an actual fresh avocado; they don’t just spread some prepared guacamole on the bread and call it a day. This sandwich is the real deal.
I might have liked for the sandwich to be a bit cheaper, with the pickle and tax my lunch order weighed in at over nine dollars without a drink. I think it was worth the dough however, and I’ll definitely be returning for another one. I also need to some time try their tri-tip sandwich, which had received rave reviews.
Today is Day Three of the mostly-completed poultry habitat, and the girls seem to be enjoying it. They aren’t particularly enjoying the weather, with a high of around 90 degrees yesterday. They spend a fair bit of time laying down in the shade.
Yesterday I built a pop door for them, and I think it turned out pretty well. I rigged a bit of line with some tiny half-inch pulleys so that I can open and close the door from outside the run. It works great!
They are still a bit timid about the ramp. I clamped a 2×4 near the top so that they have a spot to stand when entering and exiting the coop, and that seems to have helped a little. I think the slope is a bit too steep for them to get sure footing.
I had to put them in the coop by hand again last night, except for the Ameraucana who is a week older. I hand carried the three younger girls inside, and once the big girl figured out that she was all alone in the run she managed to find her way to her broodmates without my intervention. So there’s some progress in that department. I noticed an interesting behavior regarding evening roosting: Out in the run, at evening time the girls will look for something to roost on the way chickens are supposed to do. Once they are up in the coop however they don’t have any interest in the roost which I installed for them and they instead try to all pile up on top of one another in the corner of the coop. So far I’m at a loss to figure out what is motivating that activity.
I finally finished up the chicken run yesterday with the installation of the door. The chickens are now fenced in! This morning I built a ramp for them so that they can get up and down, and for the first time I let them out of the coop!
They seem to be enjoying themselves. It took about ten minutes for them to venture out into the big world after I opened the door. They didn’t use the ramp, they just sort of flapped themselves down to ground level. I’ll have to keep an eye on them today to make sure that they figure out how to get back up into the coop.
I moved the feed and water down into the run, which is where I’ll be keeping them. The pop door isn’t built yet, so for the time being I’m just opening the side access door for the chickens to get in and out.
The chickens grow fast!
It’s been a while since I shared my lunch, and since the titular purpose of my blog is in fact lunches I thought it was high time.
This is the roast pork loin salad from the company café today; it was really remarkably good. They included mango and orange, which went very nicely with the pork, and also avocado which goes well with anything. Delicious!
The fluorescent office lights don’t really do justice to food, but trust me on the deliciousness.
I moved the chickens out into their coop last night! After a last minute trip to Home Depot and some hurried carpentry after work, I managed to complete the coop enough for the girls to take up residence.
The run isn’t finished and there are a number of things left to do on the coop, but it’s good enough to get them out of the Rubbermaid tub in my laundry room and into some more spacious quarters.
The chickens, as chickens are wont to do, continue to eat and grow.
I took Friday off this week because I have too much unused PTO; I’m going to see if I can finish up their coop with a 3-day weekend.
The chicken habitat in the back yard is coming along pretty well. I got the footings in the ground and framed up the walls and rafters.
All framed up
It’s five by ten feet, which should be pretty good for four hens. I’ll let them out into the rest of the yard when I’m home and can keep an eye on them, but when I’m at the office they’ll mostly live in here. The walls will be half-inch mesh hardware cloth, which should keep the rodents and hawks out and the chickens in. There will be an elevated enclosed coop section on the right side where they can sleep and lay eggs, and the rest will be open run.
I’m basing it on the plans for the Garden Coop, but I am constructing most of the details differently and mine is slightly larger.
The angle braces that you see in the image are temporary, they will be removed once the roof and coop walls are in place.
It’s been another busy week of eating and growing for the chickens out at my homestead. Also pooping.
I switched them over to Nutrena feed from the Purina that I started them on. My motivation was that Nutrena is what Sam’s Feed in San Jose carries, but there seem to be some benefits to the new feed as well. The Nutrena chick crumbles are more evenly and finely ground and less dusty than the Purina product. Also the chicks seem to be…ah…how should I put this politely? Their “output” seems to be more solid with the Nutrena feed, and they’re less messy.
They are probably ready to go outside now, since the weather is nice and warm. We’re seeing highs in the 80s and nightly lows in the low 60s. It’s just up too me to get their coop finished.
