High Maintenance Chicks

I've always imagined it'd be kinda cool to keep chickens in the house. And now that I am, I stand corrected.

Those of you who have known me for any length of time, know that I have had an ongoing war with predators. Typically the violators have been of the raccoon variety, but there was also the year of the owl and the pussy cat (great horned and bob), as well as the year I was desperate enough to start shooting skunks (followed by the month of hand feeding their orphaned offspring ). Every time I get close to rebuilding the flock, something destroys it. I understand the trade-off for free range is that they can't always be safe, but most of the mortality has come from over night in the coop, regardless of how secure I perceive it to be.

About three weeks ago, my husband found a clutch of freshly hatched chicks running around the property. He and the kids got most of them collected and placed in the "nursery," which consists of a plastic stock tank with a plywood roof. Which really isn't a bad set-up, except 1). this was during the two-week stretch of triple digit heat indexes, and the nursery provides no air flow what-so-ever, and 2). I am paranoid of another poultry apocalypse.

I brought them into the house and with our son's consent, placed them in his not currently in use fish tank, located in his room.

While I kept telling him how fortunate he was to be a teenage boy with nine chicks in his room, he quickly grew tired of all their chatter, and they quickly outgrew the tank, as well. But I still have not had opportunity to even come up with a plan as to where they can be raised in an environmentally stable situation. (I've already "pitched" the idea of keeping them at work with me. Short answer - "No.")

So, for the time being they are in a large dog crate. next to our wood stove. The chatter is loud, and constant. In an attempt to keep it from smelling as though I'm raising nine chickens in our dining room, I am changing their bedding twice a day. However, fresh bedding triggers the natural reaction of scratching (and lots, and lots of chirping), which leads to pine chips being scattered everywhere within a two-foot diameter of their cage door. And funny enough - they still smell like chickens.

I've thought about letting someone currently better equipped just take them, however, I don't want to give up on them making it to maturity with me. They actually give me hope (even though we all know it's likely false; I'm simply going to get attached, and they will end up getting dying anyway ).

So for now, I have house chickens, and it's not nearly as cool as I always imagined