 wire mesh lid so they could not fly out. In hindsight, it was definitely not the best choice as chickens are messy and they got dust everywhere. Ideally, we would have kept them outside, but we were still building the coop at the time.
Baby chicks will need a small waterer and a feeder. As we felt it would be wasteful to buy these since they would only be little for a short time, my husband made ours using an empty plastic juice bottle, yogurt container, and take-out bowls.
We bought chick feed and a heat lamp. To help keep our box warmer, we would cover half of the box with a towel, so not all the heat would escape through the wire mesh cover we had made. My husband already had an infrared thermometer, so we used that to make sure the box was warm enough for them.
For the bedding, there are two methods, there's the deep litter, where instead of changing the bedding, you just add fresh bedding on top, and then there's the change it all completely when it is dirty. We did a combination, so I think we only completely changed the bedding twice, maybe three times, while they were living in their box.
When the chicks reached six weeks of age, we moved them outside into the chicken coop. At six weeks, they no longer need a heat lamp.
Once in the chicken coop, which we lined with straw, we set up the main waterer and feeder. We would cover the door to the run at night to keep them in until they got used to using the ramp from the coop to the run. Now we leave the door uncovered so they can come and go as they please.
At around eighteen weeks we switched our chickens to adult layer feed.
If you live in a climate that has four seasons, you will want a heated base for your waterer to prevent the water from freezing.
We refill the chickens' water and food once to twice a week as needed. We also freshen their bedding about once a week as well, just turning it with a rake so their droppings fall underneath the straw, and then add some fresh straw on top. Since it is winter, we won't do a complete bedding change until spring arrives.
We got our chickens in August 2020 and they started laying eggs in January 2021.
When our chickens started laying, we did not have nesting boxes as we honestly thought they would wait until spring, but nope, they gave us the first egg in January, and in February we started getting up to three eggs a day!
My husband managed to make a "poop board," which he installed under their roost. It's basically just a wooden board with a vinyl top to make it easy to scrape the poop out of their coop and to give them a clean place underneath to lay eggs. The chickens have been laying their eggs underneath it the board since he installed it in the coop. He will make them proper boxes once it gets warm enough to work in the garage.
One thing we struggled with is on below-freezing days, sometimes we wouldn't make it in time and we would find a frozen cracked egg. We aimed to go out once an hour, but our chickens lay at random times, and we discovered that it did not take very long for an egg to freeze, so even with our hourly checks, we would still end up with a cracked egg every now and then.
For safety reasons, we toss the frozen eggs but have heard others will cook them and give them back to their chickens to avoid being wasteful. 
We do not wash the eggs until we are ready to use them. We store them in plastic egg cartons that we saved from when we bought eggs at Target. When it comes time to wash them, we use a bowl of warm water and a washcloth to gently wipe them clean and then rinse them under running warm water.
We do have a UV light sterilizer that we contemplated using to kill any potentially harmful bacteria, but when we asked around in various chicken groups, no one seemed to do more than use water to clean their eggs. I still can't find any information using UV light to help lower the risk of salmonella and e.coli on backyard chicken eggs. So far we have opted to not use the sterilizer as it seems the risk is very low, but we may later.
And that's all there really is to chicken keeping! They are surprisingly not that hard to care for and a lot of fun. Most of the hard work is just getting the coop made and ready.
Follow @whovianchickens on Instagram to see more photos of our chickens!
So cool! Some of my friends bought a farm and started raising chickens too. Love seeing the pictures and hearing all the fun(ny) stories that go along with being "chicken people"!
This is so cool! My parents have chickens (and we had them growing up). We live in an area where we are not allowed to have any (not enough space any way) but if we did, it would be so worth keeping chickens. We never used a UV light growing up- just washed them off and I lived lol but I do think the UV might be a nice touch these days.
I've loved reading your experience. We kept our baby chicks in our basement and learned the same as you did...next time they will go out in the chicken coop. It's really cold here in Illinois so we had a few eggs that froze as well. But, I was really surprised at how well our chickens produced eggs all winter. It's been really fun.
I’d love to eventually get chickens. Just need to take the plunge.
That's quite a journey! I know a lot of people locally who have chickens in their backyard, but we don't (yet).
Okay so I would love to raise chickens!  ONLY because he was responsible for taking care of them when he was younger. So he tells me no :( Maybe I just need to do it! haha Raising chickens is like a huge thing right now! Very cool to learn about your journey.
This is so cool!! If we had the space, I’d love to have chickens. Thanks for sharing!
I remember my parents having chickens when I was growing up. I love the breed of your chickens.
I grew up in a farm as a child and I remember being so excited when they first arrived because they were so yellow and cuddle. Would love to give my kids this experience where they an really enjoy farm life.
I'm trying to find out how my HOA feels about chickens cause we go through 36-48 a WEEK!
Very interesting, I've considered raising chickens several times.Munich, Germany-based medtech Brainlab AG is recalling the spine and trauma 3D software used with its navigation system designed to help surgeons place tools and implants in minimally invasive procedures.
The software could display inaccurate information during a procedure that may prevent the surgeon from safely navigating surgical tools inside the patient, resulting in serious injury or death, FDA said in a notice on the recall.
The recalled software is the Brainlab Spine & Trauma 3D Navigation 1.0, manufactured and distributed between May 2018 and February 2019. A total of 60 devices are being recalled in the United States.
Brainlab plans to stop distributing the spine and trauma navigation software as soon as an updated version is released, FDA said. Those with the current software are advised to follow certain steps for operation outlined in FDA's communication.
Brainlab has run into problems with inaccuracies in a navigation system before. In 2013, it recalled its cranial image-guided surgery system due to potential inaccuracies in the display, compared to patient anatomy. The company updated that recall in 2015.
In 2017, FDA issued a warning to healthcare providers that navigational accuracy errors may occur with stereotaxic navigation systems in general, in specialties including otolaryngology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and oral surgery. The agency said it was aware that some surgeons had experienced such errors, and they may have led to patient deaths or injury, or inaccurate or prolonged medical procedures.
At the time, FDA said it had not determined that any one system carried greater risk than others, and it believed the benefits of the devices still outweighed the risks. The agency said it was working with manufacturers to ensure labeling included clear instructions on how to minimize issues.
FDA provided a link to the 2017 communication in the new Brainlab recall notice.
Stereotaxic devices have a computer system that uses imaging such as CT and MRI to guide surgeons' placement of specialized instruments and implants before and during procedures. The devices work by registering landmarks between the patient's anatomy and radiographic images. During a procedure, the surgeon is guided by optical, electromagnetic or other tracking methods that provide real-time visualization of the instruments' position overlaid on the patient's images.
Besides Brainlab, companies making stereotaxic systems include Medtronic, Germany's Inomed, and Integra LifeSciences through its 2005 acquisition of Radionics division of Tyco Healthcare.
In addition to the spine and trauma navigation system, Brainlab makes systems for neurosurgery, orthopedic procedures, and ear, nose and throat surgery.
When you’ve made it through a pandemic spring, and to your long awaited wedding day, no amount of rain can spoil your celebration.
Linda and Josef were among the unlucky that had their long awaited wedding celebration planned during the pandemic. Living in Geramany, they had to change most of their original plans for their wedding in Linda’s home village in Finland. Their big celebration turned into an intimate one with only their closest family present and all their friends joining in on a video call. After their rainy outdoor ceremony we