The chicks are growing fast. So fast, in fact, that by 10 days we knew they were outgrowing the plastic tub they were living in and were starting to stink up the cabana! So we prepared them for their move to the bathtub from the outdoor bathroom we had removed from the deck.
We made a couple of other minor changes as well. For instance, instead of continuing to buy pine wood shavings, we thought, why not just use grass from the property? We are also trying out a chicken bottle with a nipple (yes, a chicken nipple -haha) that our friend gave us. The chicks overall seem content in their new step 2 home.
The only major adjustment we had to make was that on the first night we moved them to the tub, we heard something outside. Britton went to check on it and found a rat trying to get at the chicks! So we fixed up the tub with boards, concrete blocks and a rat trap and haven’t had a problem since we instituted the Fort Knox solution at night. During the day nothing has tried to mess with them, so we leave it mostly open with just a few boards and the wire mesh.The main coop is starting to come together and we’ll post an update soon when we get more progress on it.
This weekend we also drove up to Lares for the Festival de la Abeja (thanks Adolfo for the tip). We hadn’t been to Lares since we nearly bought a place there, so it brought up a lot of fun memories. Lares is in the heart of the jungle mountains and is a pretty cool old city. It’s about a 45 minute to hour drive from Rincón.
Old building in Lares
The festival itself was pretty fun, though we were hoping for more bee information and bee-raising materials. There were mainly booths with exotic birds, plants and food vendors and also a live band. The theme of the event was: “Sin Abejas No Hay Polinización y sin Polinización No Hay Alimentación” which means “Without bees there is no pollination and without pollination, there is no food”.
But since we were in town, we had to stop at the famous Heladería of Lares (ice cream shop) that includes many different ice cream flavors including even rice and beans! We weren’t quite up for that, and chose coffee and mango ice cream. It was a fun day trip.
Cassie
Not sure it’s a good idea to leave that wire screen off during the day either. Mary Jane said she seen a large hawk type bird pick a full size chicken up and kill it in midair up our way in Patillas. Not sure of the correct pronunciation but I think the locals call them Aguattgow.
Hi Rick.
The name of the bird is the guaraguao and google tells me that guaraguao translates to red-tailed hawk or chicken hawk. They do eat baby chicks and my dad once saw a guaraguao snatch a full sized chicken. If you look at the sky on a clear day you’ll probably see a few of them gliding.
And believe it or not the guaraguao has a natural enemy, the pitirre, which is also known as the gray kingbird. The pitirre is a small bird that’s extremely territorial and unlike the guaraguao it is very maneuverable. Pitirres will chase away guaraguaos with ferocity if they see them. Some Puerto Rican nationalists use the pitirre as one of their symbols for obvious reasons. And on a lighter note, the pitirre, just like the coquí and the many pokemon, got its name from the sound that it makes so it’s one of the few birds that I can actually recognize.
We do leave the screen on all day. I was thinking about getting an RC airplane to chase off the guaraguao. At least that’s what I’m telling Cassie. (I’ve always wanted an RC plane)
We often see the red tailed hawks swirling above our property. They are magnificent to watch, though we do worry a little for our chickens. Our neighbor said that there is a Spanish/Puerto Rican saying that goes something like “cada guaraguao tiene su pitirre” (every hawk has its little bird (Grey King bird, I think?). He said it essentially means that even the hardest, biggest or strongest person/situation has a small enemy that has the courage and can take them. I can see why the little bird would have fans because it would take a lot of guts to take on a big bird like those Red Tails.
As for the chickens, they are all standard full-size chickens and we also ordered some Jersey Giants, so they would have a pretty hard time taking those ones. That was one of the reasons we had for ordering online: many of the chickens we saw at the agros in PR seemed to be bantam or interbred with bantams and seemed small compared with our CO chickens. We read that red tailed hawks rarely eat full-sized chickens, though chicks are easy game. We wanted to do our best to keep them from becoming hawk bait, so we got some big, heavy chickens!
Like BK said the chicks are always under the wire (and under the house). It’s just that at night we almost nearly cover the entire thing in wood paneling. In the day we just have the wire and a few boards on top so they don’t jump out.
I am loving how photogenic the baby chicks are ! I love your blog very informative and helpful.
Guaraguoas can fly off with puppies. We have seen it happen
Katrina, that was probably a chupacabras.
adolfojp
Thanks for the clarification on guaraguao I new I would tare that name up.I have seen those smaller birds chase them they actually are very maneuverable.The guaraguao hang up in the wind currents between the mountains for hours just searching for pray.
Britton
I like the idea of the RC airplane. Better yet a DJI Phantom Quadcopter with a GoPro Hero 3 Camera. $$$$$
The go pro would definitely have uses and would be fun on your site ; our son uses his for everything from skiing (via helmet attachment) to ” buzzing” the table at family gatherings. Pretty good quality and sound, too.