The Godfather brings the chicks

March 29th, 2015 was a sunny spring day. My wife’s friend Sheila was over and her husband, who is our daughters godfather, was on his way. After coming inside to say hello to everyone he asked me outside. In the back seat of his truck he had a present for my daughter.

Chicks

Inside the ‘chick days’ crate from Tractor Supply were 6 chicks. The local legal limit for hens in Nashville, TN / Davidson County. He also brought with him (2) heat lamps, a 1 quart feeder, 1 quart feeder, newspapaer and a bag of grower chicken feed. This was everything we needed to get started with chicks.

To say my daughter was happy is an understatement. I have wanted chickens for a while and I talked to my then 3 year old about it. My suspicion is that this gift may have been more for me than her. The only person that wasn’t excited about our new arrival was my wife. She said then and has stood firm since that she will not do anything for the chickens.

Caring for chicks

I started doing research immediately on how to care for chicks. It is pretty simple actually. Chicks need a home. We chose a large cardboard box we had lying around. We lined it with newspaper and filled the feeder and waterer. We added the heat lamp and set them up in the garage.

The temperature in our garage remains about 60° during the spring and fall and the first week chicks need about 95°. You can influence the temperature by raising or lowering your heat lamp. With each additional week the chicks need about 5° fewer degrees to survive. The only additional item I added was a thermometer on the side of the brooding box to tell me the temp inside the box.

The cruise

The first few weeks weren’t very eventful. However; my parents were having their 50th wedding anniversary and as a gift they paid for all four of their children and all ten of their grandchildren on a 3 days cruise in late April. This meant that I had to find a ‘chick sitter‘. Luckily my neighbor thought it was a great idea. In addition to the cruise we planned to tack on a trip to South Carolina before and a day at Disney after. We would be gone for nearly two weeks.

When we left my girls were getting bigger but they still looked like chicks, only bigger. When we returned they resembled dinosaurs and had become ill mannered. The garage was covered in a fine dust. What that dust actually was I don’t know but for my wife this was a clear sign that the chicks needed to move to their forever home and my next project was born.

Wrapping Up

Being gifted with hens was a surprise and an exciting day in my house. Looking back now I can say that having backyard chickens is a commitment like having any other pet. These just happen to produce food.

Join me next time while I discuss the Chicken Coop Build and getting a permit for Chickens – Keeping of Domesticated Hens in Nashville.

Reference documents

• BackyardChickens.com
• There is a facebook group called ‘Middle TN Chickens’ for like minded individuals