OH MY!! What is this!!

   So I came home from shool on Friday the 8th of April, tierd and ready for a nap after my three hour Humanities class (which I love, just really long), and Glen rushed me down stairs to show me something. I reluctantly followed down to the garrage (the only thing in the garage is is car, the motorcycle or his toy car... so I'm never really thrilled to go down there). To my surprize, when he opened the door, I saw my rabbit hutch rigged with a heat lamp! OH MY!! What is this!!?!! There were 5 little chicks, cute as can be! We had talked about getting chicks to replenish the flock come fall when we slaughter a few, and to make sure we have laying hens laying! I didn't think he'd act on it right away! Keep in mind, I only wanted 5 chickens to start with and now we have 13!  He told me all excited they were White Leghorns and filled me in on all the little details, he cleaned them all up carefully and added electrolyest to their water and like a mother hen kept watch on them. Here orry is checking them out, he's just as excited as his daddy was!

   We headed back to the feed store to exchange out a heat bulb and I started comparing the Australorp and the Leghorn, and realized the Leghorn is a lighter bird that layes really good but is fllighty and can fly. Where as the Australorp is a heavier breed, more friendly and a good layer, less likely to be flighty.
   We discussed their differences when we got home, and Glen went to go trade the Leghorns for the Australorps, he came home with 8 cuties. Yep, now we have 16 birds! Oh boy!

   So he kept an eye on them and stuggled to find  a way to keep their temp a constant 90 degrees. One thing we noticed at 90 they were laying around and seemed very hot. We droped the the temp to 87, and they didn't seem to improve much. At 84 they were acting normal again but we had hard time keeping it there. Finally we got the temp to regulate at 87 and set their enclosure up to have the heat in one part more than the other, that way they can regulate their own temp.  They have been doing really well, eating, drinking, moving around, are curiouse in things shinny and are being handled regularly and adjust very well. They are cute which helps me adjusting to them!

   Here is Glens monitoring system, from one laptop to the other, with a web cam monitoring them. Pretty high tech, but he has got a thermometer system rigged in there as well, and it show the flucuation in themperature as well, as their food and water etc.!