i'm the real garden well it's been a while hasn't it due to uncontrollable circumstances i've been awfully busy lately with some some things that meant needed to be dealt with  and you go up to the feed store and pick out some nice chicks get in get a movie set up here so what's what i recommend here is you know you don't need much and you know when you first get em all you need to use a nice box you need about a half a foot per check happen square foot per check when they're first starting out which isn't much as you can see this box is about eighteen by twenty two which turned out to be little water and you need to keep track of that temperature so you'll notice i've got a couple different their monitors in here on this one also has a hygrometer and you'll notice that it's reading almost no humidity which is good for chicken chickens don't like wet chickens like dry avoids any kind of pneumonia problem so that sort of thing comes with anything to go on so you give them what i recommend as you set up the box twenty four hours in advance dial that temperature and the light is hanging on a chain so that you can you know adjust the temperature one link at a time so the way i deal with them as i always kind of allowed them to come to me palm down and pretty soon they'll be taken little chickie rides here if they don't like it just  soon it becomes still be kind of arguing over who gets the ride when you know just i always also don't come from above and pet their backs or the top of their heads always come in below at this point  later they might like a little pat down the back i always approach them from down here the legs the breast down the sides they're getting their new feathers so that they have little pin feathers and we know from watching like too much attention there but on their down a little max and if you can stay away from those new threat or switch you're going to be better off and they're going to enjoy your company a little more approach and slowly i always talk to them because they can't see you coming when they're down in the box so i always kind of let them know i'm here to talk softly move slowly all the birds like that so let's introduce the game here  and she's a black star which is a cross it's a it's a sex went chicken does have some paper towels handy when you're doing this because it happens a lot  female and what happens is in her case the black stars the females are all black especially on the head she's got a nice dark head and then the males when they hatch out will have a little white dot on their head and you know under normal circumstances i wouldn't be holding out for that long because i think they do get a little restless when you're handling them and they all jump and i don't want to hurt themselves so this point they start must fly pretty well so i'm not too coming down the conveyor belt and somebody who knows what they're doing looks up inside that vent and you're supposed to see a little be able to see the male organs in there it's about somewhere between seventy five and ninety percent accurate is the turned into a rooster and it broke my heart when i had to get rid of him because he was you know even being made off and roosters can be aggressive even male hard rock was very gentle gentle with other ladies gentle with me and just seems to enjoy human contact so that's rose of sharon by the way she named after this tragic and lovely character and grapes of wrath and who cross between i think a rhode island red and like new hampshire maybe there's a couple different ways of producing a golden or a red or a black's excellent chicken you know because there's different males and females with those particular mama chicken and you do a little scratching before you know you love to scratch and peck to make sure the water is clean and i just cleaned it and so you can see it's already getting chips in it because these are very active little chicks at this point as they mature as they are in fact i'm about to redo their set up for the food and water ideally the food and water should be level one of the tops of their next little fool throwing here for a hanging tight and that again will go on a chain so they can adjust it as it comes up you know as they grow up again with the water this is going to go on a chain and this will really help keep it clean a little cleaner too if i can just bring that up sort of out of there scratch zone in there little dust bags right now it is on a little platform  simple wooden creation you know look at it put its borders on it and everything that's from my last batch of chicks you want to keep that little clean  days even if you can if you're home all day and are doing that you know there's little bits that to get away from you know you know eventually you're going to want to clean that out and i usually have spare boxes i do over here and you know this underground but they're still a couple weeks away from being able to relate sustain their own body temperature you know of course and you know nature you know the mother would keep an eye on them and warm up  the time comes so they're getting tougher by the day as far as the lighting requirements go to you know my first couple batches a had it all charted out of the last fifteen  minutes per week one of the you know if your recent chickens in the chicken house you started off with twenty four hour light and then gradually always decreasing the light as they're growing up as chicks and then once they start coming into late you always increase the light a little bit up to about fourteen to sixteen hours which will keep them in production you know if they're in an artificial environment i was a little looser on the third ba and i'm being real loose i don't i kind of flip the light on for him here in the kitchen when i'm awake just to keep him at a fairly steady longer day and then once we get to the summer solstice then i will worry about it so much you know i this is from observations of other viewers just like you who got the chicks and completely ignored the lighting so i'm kind of doing everybody seems to work fin you know once they're ready to lay depending on the greed of the younger you know someone will lay all that first winter and others will come into it you know if you get these here in march no they come into production about twenty in to lay around august i lay well maybe even through thanksgiving might always quit for the winter but i've had plenty of people call me and say you know two out of you got four of their chickens laid all winter on that first winter even without artificial lighting and of you know you know if you don't get artificial lighting when those days get real short and they well they'll often times go into molt you know that first year some do some don't so they'll take a little break since they're not getting that long daylight maybe mult out maybe not but they'll probably go off the lake for a few months  little earlier each fall but you know kitty she did produce last year she's ten years old this spring she didn't produce last year so it's in her eighth year so she laid as well as she probably ever lay heavy you know every day for a few months and then she starts molting in the middle of summer which is a little weird but that's cleo you know it's going to be a little bit different and i'm hoping that some of these  got this nice premium you know whole grains you know you can actually see well that's a lentil and that's a you know some ground up we may be all corn in there and that sort of playing and what they have me do is mix it fifty fifty protein you don't want developing too fast or their little metabolisms can't keep up and you could run into heart problems you're growing too fast you also don't want to give them a layer layer mix has high calcium content in it and at this time in their development it can actually lead to elongate of the bones in your shin splints brittle bones because you're doing too much calcium so make sure you're feeding them the right stuff at the know eat their food as well but once third that's two weeks old they're terrifying you know they they seem to be very interested as they are right now then they'll get excited and start scratching stuff all over spreading it all over basically at this point it can be a free choice what they call it you know just put a little dish over on the side make surely get some every day let him sleep in it at the i want to play people a lot of the us i should say that this little dish that they're eating out  is actually the first food dish they had when you first get them home if they were really just just out of the mailbox you know usually you want to put a paper towel down over these wo chips so that they're not eating the wood chips constantly for just for that first date make sure that you know where the food is what it is to put it in a shallow dish like that so they can stand it when it's sleep in it but really be aware of where it is and have it available to them when they're at a very chippy chick stage and i tell you when they're done with that that's little plastic container as one of their favorite toys just speaking of toys after the battle we can start introducing a little toy right here i've got a little practice roost which rose of sharon is using good girl you're still out sleeping on it consistently but they kind of get to know what that is and you got we come out here look at the spring chickens now you can see things are greening up a little bit those peas are coming up nicely despite the cats  my yard it's time for another shot of cayenne pepper that'll keep them out of the projects to do here and i guess it would be one of my perennial advice as to people if you haven't started that coop yet you know you've got chicks in there and they are growing up fast they're already two weeks old and you haven't even put posts on the ground i'm telling you you're going to end up with the team weak chickens livin in your bedroom closet her you know running around the basement or something and they do get very dusty as those feathers start coming in it's it's not so bad now when they're little but i can already start to see the chick dust starting to become an issue from the last batch i had indoors i actually built sort of a plastic tent around the whole thing and to try to contain that you know and it's not a big deal if you don't mind it but i'm just warning you right here right now better design that coop and get it ready because they grow up awfully fast so these girls are actually cleo actually gave me a little presentation the other day she's getting a little red in the face to the sun thinking maybe and she's eating greens which is a good sign so i'm thinking these two actually kick out a few eggs ten and nine years old bless their hearts kitty's looking a little stronger this year and we've dealt with a couple health issues on her part and  some sort of world record here or something once you see i'm scratching for worms and hit metal oyster shell you do have oyster shell in there right then you'll know it's time well we've run out of time you can email me if you want the we'll see you next week