As our little chicks grew they were soon banished to the garage and the second heat lamp was needed as the temperatures were falling into the teens at night. We kept holding them as often as possible and even started feeding them some greens. After a few weeks their cuteness decreased and they turned into mini dinosaurs as their feathers grew in. The rooster became even more of a jerk and he pecked me every time I put my hand in to clean the food/ water dishes twice daily. Each time I would grab him and tell him if we wasn’t a good boy he’d end up in the stew pot… I guess we will have to see. At this age they were messy and gross. They pooped everywhere and in large amounts, and they started flying about so I stole some wire fencing from the scrap pile and bent it into shape for a lid. The count down began until they were a month old and feathered out enough to go out into their big coop with their heat lamp.
Unfortunately the old coop that came with our property needed some work before it was chicken ready. The power didn’t work despite having plug ins and switches… So I ran a 100 ft extension cord from the shop window up into the rafters of the coop and down to connect to their two heat lamps. Weather here in March is still pretty darn cold. Also our coop has a chicken shoot that goes to a 2/3 acre pen, but as they were too young to be going out we boarded it up and set up some little roosts (also complements of the scrap pile). I was even able to get a piece of scrap decking from my gold mine scrap pile and push it on the wheelbarrow to the coop so it would have a deck. We added some decor, hung the 40 lb feeder and 7 gallon waterer from some chain using clips for east removal during filling and cleaning and our little flock was so happy to be in their new home! They flew about and strutted all over. The hanging large water and feeder proved to be the best things to renew my love in these birds as they only need changed maybe every two weeks? I love not cleaning out chicken poo! 
crowellcreekranch 