We Need a Bigger House

So many exciting things have been happening these past few months that I forgot to show everyone the chickens second home before the coop.
  The first brooder we had for them was great. It was the perfect size for baby chicks. However, when they began to enter what I called their "teenage" phases they needed more room. They were easily hopping out of the first brooder and began to peck at each other again because the space they were in was too confined at this point. Their feathers were not fully developed just yet so we were not comfortable putting them in the main coop. Luckily, Cory had another ammo crate that was significantly larger that the first brooder. I cannot say that it is common for the chickens to have more than one home before they go out into the coop, but ours did! In home number two the girls had more room to run around during the day and had areas that they could go without being right next to each other.
  In this brooder they really started to become more comfortable roosting on the edges and flying from one point to another. The design of it was almost exactly the same as the first brooder except obviously the size of it was larger. We still used the shredded newspaper for the bedding because that was working out great for us. We did however, put in their full sized feeder so we did not have to fill the food every day with using the chick feeder because they were eating a ton now that they were getting bigger. We still have to change out their water every day because we still had not found a waterer that we like that would not leak every where but that was easy enough. I will say we tried a hamster feeder because the chickens like to peck at things and they were able to get the water out of it easily, but even that started leaking and making a mess.

  The top was covered with chicken wire which we removed when we were around to give them time to stretch and play around outside of the brooder in the garage for a bit. We kept the heat lamp on them for awhile since they still got chills at night. You could tell when their feathers were fully developed because they no longer would go under the heat lamp and we were able to turn it off. The weather was also changing at that point and the temperature was getting warmer which helped.
  Since the chickens were growing so quickly we also changed their feed. When the were chicks we got the Chick feed by Nutrena because it was smaller in size, called crumbles and it contained medication that helped support their growth since their immune systems were still gaining strength.  The feed that we switched to and use now was still made by Nutrena is called layer feed which is pellet sized. It helps chickens that will be laying eggs by providing them with the necessary nutrients they need for producing eggs and digesting their food.
  Below are a few other photos of home number two and the goofy girls who stole my heart!