Today, I cleaned the chicks' pen and spent a little time admiring it. I have to say that I absolutely adore the low-maintenance setup we have for our chicks this year. Praise. the. Lord. No more weeks upon weeks of hot, dusty sessions of shoveling damp pine shavings from a cardboard box in the garage, while mentally noting that the box needs to be replaced again, because the birds have outgrown it. This time, we decided to forego the garage entirely*. I still haven't finished the organizing project that booted my hubby's car to the driveway last year, anyway. In light of this, it was very gracious of him to set up the chicks in the screened porch this time. The spot is extra great, because I can peek out and check on them from the dining room window. I asked him to elevate it this time, since the hunched-over poop-scooping kills my lower back, and causes the whole chick-raising experience to lose its luster a little faster each year. He put the kennel on top of an old table, where it fits perfectly, and put a tarp in between to protect the table from being ruined**.
THEN, the man made a nipple waterer for the chicks with a couple of spare poultry nipples from our old waterer that had a broken handle. We have loved our nipple waterer for the big girls, since it holds a lot and never ever gets poop in it. It got even better this winter, when we finally hung it up inside the coop where the heat lamps are. In previous years, I have used a small feed-store feeder and a leaky waterer for the chicks, even when they grow so big that they knock them over twice daily.Hubby had also bought a metal feeder for the big girls, but had not installed it yet, and agreed to use it for the chicks. He took the time, also, to hang the water AND the food from the top of the kennel, so they are even more protected from spillage and contamination.
We have had them for 9 days. We have filled their feeder exactly once, and today I filled the waterer for only the second time. This is compared with 2-3 times per day in previous years. ZERO times have I gone through the feed by hand, picking out poop and pine shavings.
We put in a proper perch this time, intentionally, rather than as an afterthought. It's an old shovel handle that we had used before, but we had to notch it to get it to fit snug against the rails.
Arguably, the best part of this arrangement is the cleanup. When they scratch pine shavings out of the cage, they land directly on the concrete floor, where I can easily sweep them right out the door. I have only done this twice so far, but it could stand to be done daily.
Seriously praising God, and three cheers for my hubby for being so proactive in simplifying the process this year. He is a very busy guy, works a lot of hours and very involved in church, and very involved with our 4 boys, so the 2 hours or so he spent on this were gold.
I am withholding judgement until they are bigger, but so far, I feel like I could raise chicks this way every year! Thanks, Honey!
*Why can't we say "forewent"? You always have to "decide to" before you can forego something.
**If you have never raised chicks, you may want to pay special attention to the word ruined in that last sentence.
