Florida trip

Today we are going to take a break from chickens and talk about our recent trip to Florida.

I had so much fun in Florida and I did so many things.

My favorite thing I did was riding my bike around my grandmas community.  There are ponds, a church, a community center, a fountain and a nature trail.  
The ponds have fish, turtles and alligators in them.  On the nature trail there are snakes, cows and birds and fresh orange trees.  
I had so much fun riding around and seeing the lizards and sand cranes.  Sand cranes are tall birds and they walk slow and eat bugs as they walk around.  
I got really close to hitting a squirrel, but I slammed on my brakes.
I have really cool lights that blink so people can see me at night.  I used them a lot.  
Here are some pictures from where my grandma lives.

Another thing we did was go to the beach.  I played in the water and on the sand.  It was really warm and sunny.  I got a sunburn on my back, but the sunburn is better now. 
We saw a dolphin and a shrimp.   My brother caught a brittle starfish.  He let it go.  We saw stone crabs, horseshoe crabs and fiddler crabs.  The fiddler crabs are small crabs that come out of a hole in the sand and if you get to close they run right back in.  

We went kayaking a few times and that was fun.  I really like to kayak.  When we went to the Weeki Wachee river, I swam with slayt down the river.  I saw a manatee but didn't pet it.  My sister and brother did.  It was really cute.  The manatees name is Barbara. Here is a link to the Weeki Wachee State Park. 
https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/weeki-wachee

Where do you like to go on Vacation?  What do you like to do?  
Leave your comments below.
Thanks!

Healthy Chicks

Today we are going to talk about chicken health and things to look for when you own chicks or are going to buy them.

When looking for chicks you want to make sure they are eating and drinking well.

 The next thing you should check for is to make sure the chicks have bright, clear eyes and straight toes.  

Patsy or Pasty Butt is a bad thing that can kill a chick very quickly.  It is a serious problem but it can be treated.  

Pasty Butt is when the vent (poop hole) gets clogged.  This can happen during shipping or if the chick is stressed.

My cousin has chicks and she gave her baby a chick spa when it got pasty butt.  She filled a tub with warm epsom salt water. Here is a picture of her.

Here is a cool video of a person talking about Pasty Butt and taking care of one of her chicks.

I hope you enjoyed this.  

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog.   I will be talking about all different kinds of things.  Right now I'm interested in chickens.  My family and I are getting new chicks in April.   We ordered them from Meyer Hatchery.  Here is a cool video of what they do at Meyer Hatchery.  

We ordered 3 Barred Rocks, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes and 3 Easter Eggers.

My favorite is the Rhode Island Red.    The name sounds nice, they are friendly, they produce lots of brown eggs and they are cute.  

The names of my Rhode Island Reds are going to be Hope, Winter and Willow.   My moms Silver Laced Wyandottes are going to be named Henny, Penny and Peck.  My dad isn't going to name his.  

We have to get the shed ready for them to come.  We have a little while before they will be big enough to go outside.  Baby chicks need a heat lamp, chick starter and lots of fresh water.  

When the chicks are older and ready to lay eggs, I will be selling the extra eggs we get.  Keep checking back for updates on the eggs. 

Chickens are 18 weeks old when they start to lay eggs.  

Supplies you need for chickens are:  fencing, netting to go over the top of the cage so hawks don't get them, feed and water, things to hold the feed and water.  

We are going to keep our chickens fenced in because we have a dog who might want to play with them.  Also we want them to get used to laying in their egg boxes to lay eggs.  We also have racoons that would eat the chickens and eggs if we let them roam around.