Week 2; Day 1

Another uneventful day, thus far. I made a trip to the used bookstore yesterday, to look for books on raising chickens. I only found a couple specifically about chickens [there were a few that were about livestock in general; these mostly contained very short segments about chickens, so I wasn't too concerned with those]. I picked out one called Raising Poultry the Modern Way. I don't know how "modern" it will prove to be, since the book was published in 1975... but who knows? I'm sure it'll have at least a few good tips, and it appears to be very detailed on the advice it offers.

One of the Cornish Rocks is also going to bear close watching. It seems to have hurt its wing at some point. It doesn't seem to want to extend that wing; the wing also looks to be less developed than the other. If I hold the chick and extend the wing myself, it doesn't seem to cause it pain, but I have to wonder if it will cause problems later on. However, since it doesn't seem to be in any pain, I'm not very concerned. I'll just keep a close eye on it for now.

One of the biggest concerns with raising chicks is preventing the potential spread of dangerous bacteria. This means we have to be sure to wash our hands immediately after handling the chicks, and making sure the kids do the same. This got a bit tedious in the first few days; we were each washing our hands 15 or 20 times a day. So I ignored my personal feelings about regular use of hand sanitizer [you can't kill every germ around you, and if you really try, then your immune system will not be able to handle any aggressive bacteria that find their way into your body], and bought some to keep near the hutch. So far, this seems to be a wonderful idea; it's quick and easy, it makes it that much harder to 'forget' to wash hands afterward, and it saves gallons of hand-washing water every day.

And here is where it appears that this blog will slow down quite a bit. Daily posts of: "I changed the bedding, refilled food and water, and oh, by the way, they're so cute!" will get very tedious. I'll still try to update every few days, though. As always, if you have a question, or a comment, feel free to speak up!