The Pen and the Brooder

I was not really prepared very well when I got the baby ducklings, I had to use things I got for the chicks I was assuming would hatch from the eggs my chickens were sitting on.  I have gone back and gotten more supplies for each week.  I had 8 chicks hatch and left them with their Momma's for their first week of life.  On one of my trips to get supplies I heard of another feed store and went to check them out, there is where the kind lady talked me into buying a couple of her baby Goslings.  I kept the ducks and geese in the guest bathroom for a couple of weeks, but I had never been around baby waterfowl and did not realize how quickly they grow.

The baby chicks that Ms McCluckinson hatched followed Momma's lead and decided to leave the nest box and go into the general population...this was not good.  The chicken tractor's ramp was to steep for them to get back up the ramp by themselves to get back into the coop.  The wire on the bottom of the chicken tractor was too big, being 2 inches by 4 inches, to keep the chicks contained.  I figured that the dogs would get them, or a hawk, or some other animal.  I had to do something quick.  So, I made a double decker brooder box.  I put Ms McCluckinson in a very large dog crate with her two babies as a temporary solution.  The bars, I soon found out, were still not close enough to keep the chicks from danger...they could run straight threw them!  I found this out when the dogs came out the door and frightened the Momma hen, the babies ran out the side away from the dogs.  Once I got the brooder box completed, I moved both Mother hens and their chicks into the separate brooders.

My mistake was getting some new chicks from Tractor Supply and trying to put them in the same box with my Mother Hens.  That was not good, they pecked the poor new chicks...so I took the Momma hens and put them back into the coop without their babies. So now I have 14 baby chicks in the brooder box and have eggs in the incubator due to start hatching tomorrow.

I made the ducks and geese a new pen because they had grown out of their tub, their tub is what they have as a swimming hole now.  I made the duck pen so that I could take it apart to move it fairly easily.   I put a dog house as their shelter and have shade cloth across a bit over half of the pen.  If you know nothing about geese and ducks, they poop a lot...a whole lot.  They ate all the grass within a couple of days and the poop got thick on the sandy soil, I thought I would be able to rake it up, but ducks and geese keep everything wet with all of their splashing around and dipping their food into the water.  I had to move the pen, two days later it is again a mess...but over 5 inches of rain may have something to do with that.  

Today is Mother's Day, everything is just sopping wet still.  My husband and I went and raked up a bunch of pine needles and put them in the duck pen and the chicken tractors run.  There is a high probability of more rain the next four days and today it has showered on and off a few times.  I am hoping the pine needles will help keep the chickens, ducks and geese a bit dryer this week.  We need more time for it to dry out, but...we needed the rain too.