California White at 5 weeks

The chicks are now 5 weeks old. This week, I am profiling one of our breeds, the California White. Of course, this choice was based purely on which chick took the best picture today.

I picked up two of these chicks on a whim at the feed store because I thought they would look neat with the mix of black and white feathers. The breed is a hybrid cross between a California Grey rooster and a White Leghorn hen. Online, I have found mixed reviews for the California White breed. From the Leghorn heritage, they could have a tendency to be nervous and flighty. But, I have also seen them described as friendly. They lay a lot of white eggs and weigh around 4.5 pounds when mature.

Even though the chicks are growing rapidly, they are still dwarfed by the other "White Chicken" that lives here. In their defense, White Chicken is a Light Brahma which is a notoriously heavy breed weighing in at nearly 8 pounds.

Can you smell the daffodils?

I was away for a couple of days this weekend. Before I left, there were a few daffodils blooming. Today, it looks like all the bulbs I planted are up and open. I purchased a fragrant mix and I thought I had been mislead because the scent has been slim to none. However, the fragrance coming out of the flower bed confirms that yes, I did receive the fragrant mix.

4 Weeks and Growing

The chicks are getting bigger everyday. Here is one of the Buff Orpington chicks. Feathers are coming in on their tails and heads. They look pretty funny with a mixture of smooth feathers and fuzzy down sticking out.
This past weekend, we moved the PVC run from Brown and White Chicken's coop to the new Chick Condo. The chicks seem to enjoy scurrying through the grass and trying out their wings. My husband affectionately called them "lawn rats."
They have even tried roosting on the door. Although that doesn't last too long (especially when a second chick tries to join in).

Kitchen Garden

Since moving here, I always thought it would be nice to have a kitchen garden of herbs just outside the door. Unfortunately, we didn't have a fence so any efforts to grow herbs would likely have been foiled by deer. Now that we have a fence, the kitchen garden became a reality. On Friday night, I didn't start out clearing the beds to start this garden. I was trying to prevent the spread of a horrible weed that has little spiky spirals. They are green now but dry out in the summer and stick to your socks. I cleared this area because this weed was starting to spread.

Once I started, I continued all around the patio. It was my hubby's idea to plant herbs and I thought it was a great idea. Luckily, I grew several perennial herbs last summer and they overwintered well in the garden. We had enough plants to fill the bed without having to buy anything. Before transplanting, I had to address the soil issue. And by issue, I mean clay. I loosened the soil and amended it with some rich black dirt from the vegetable garden. Once the soil was ready, I planted the following:

Already in the bed
Dwarf Pomegranates

Grown from seed last year
Lavender
Oregano
Thyme
Sage
Parsley

Transplanted from our yard
Lavender

To be added
Basil
Onions
Flowers from Winter Sowing

Moving Day...and the Chick Condo

On Sunday, the chicks woke up and it was business as usual. They had been living in a 50 gallon container for the past 2 weeks in our laundry room. If you have ever raised chicks, you know that this was pretty much as long as you want them inside. They were making tons of chick dust and didn't smell too great. I decided to move them outdoors sooner than last year's chicks (which were brooded in a bathroom destined for demolition - so the chick dust wasn't a big deal).

We have plans to build a permanent chicken coop so all the chickens can live together (currently White Chicken and Brown Chicken have their own place). But that is a few months out. In the meantime, I wanted a semi-permanent shelter that was similar to a chicken tractor and allowed the chicks to be on grass. Thus, the Chick Condo was built.

The Chick Condo was built using 2x4 pieces leftover from gates we constructed for our new fence. There were just enough to make a 3' x 3' square, that is 18" high. The roof is some plastic from an old greenhouse. A few other scrap pieces of wood and old baseboards completed the structure. I wrapped chicken wire around the walls and added 2 pieces of culled lumber ($.50 a piece) as walls until the weather warms. A leftover hinge and latch allowed me to hang the door without a trip to the hardware store. The condo has two access points, the door and through the roof. I built it so the roof can lift off in case we need to access the chicks and they run into the corner like this:

I also put in a roost. On Sunday the chicks didn't attempt to get on it, but now many of them have been able to fly/jump up. They are still sleeping on the ground (next to the heat lamp), but I expect they will be roosting soon.

The last thing I did was to let out Brown Chicken and White Chicken so they could free range and "meet" the chicks. The ironic thing about the meeting was that White Chicken seemed to be afraid of the chicks and ran across the yard and hid under the patio table. Brown Chicken quickly followed suit. I called them out and they returned to their foraging. They have been okay since.