Getting the brooder ready

We raise our own chickens for meat.  Every year at this time, we accept delivery of around 150 - one day old chicks that we raise for 8 weeks.  We get them in two separate batches - first a batch of 50 that will be delivered tomorrow and then another batch of 100 that we will accept in 4 weeks.  We raise them to maturity at around 8 weeks and then we butcher them, cut them in the standard 8 piece cut up and freeze individually in gallon freezer bags for our family's use throughout the year.  We also sell some.  They are healthy birds with no hormones or antibiotics.  We feel comfortable eating them as we know how they were raised, what they ate and can ensure they were ethically treated and are safe to eat.  The breed is Cornish Cross chickens and they grow really fast.  We'll chart their growth and you'll be amazed to see how quickly the birds grow.

Tomorrow 50 of them are scheduled to arrive.  Tonight I'll get everything ready so that when they arrive, Tricia can just water them and put them in the brooder.  Our brooder is a homemade box that I built out of scrap materials lying around.  We keep the baby chicks in it until they get some feathers and then we move them out on the pasture in the chicken tractor that we just moved the pullets out of.  Baby chicks don't like cold weather and don't like drafts.  Our brooder keeps the cool breezes off of them and we position a heat lamp over the brooder to keep the temperature nice and toasty.  As of right now, the heat lamp may be optional.  Today is December 3rd and it was a balmy 80 degrees!  Mercy me.

After we milked Daisy and Rosie, I went and got the brooder out of the barn.  Here is the brooder in all its glory stored away since last Spring when we used it last. 


Here is the brooder safely stored out of the weather in our barn

 The brooder has been stored on its side and I noticed that a hen has made a nest on top of it and has been laying her eggs here.  She'll have to find a new spot.  I picked up the brooder and checked it out.  It's not real pretty to look at - just a box with a corrugated tin bottom and a hinged top that has a chicken wire framed door.  All looks okay.

Our homemade brooder ready for action

I propped open the door and cleaned some spider webs out of it and then carried it to our garage to get it all ready.


Last minute housecleaning

I tested out the heat lamps to ensure they are all in working order.  This one is working great and putting out good heat.  You can feel it radiating heat.  When the cold weather comes, these lamps are a necessity. 

Testing the heat lamps

It's a good thing I checked them out.  These two are missing bulbs.  I remember from last year rain water splashed on them when they were hot and the bulbs instantly shattered.  Tricia will pick up a couple of bulbs from the feed store.  At the current outdoor temperature of 80 degrees, there's not a real big rush for having more than one lamp for now.  That will change, though.  You really have to be careful with these lamps.  I had a friend who had an empty feed bag that the wind blew right next to the light.  It started a fire that burned up all of his chickens and almost burned his barn down. 
 

Need some new bulbs

I went to the barn and filled a five gallon bucket with hay to put in the bottom of the brooder for bedding.  I've used wood chips before, but we have a lot of hay on the floor of the barn that would otherwise go to waste, so I'm putting it to good use.  Chicks like good clean, dry bedding.  You'll see soon how quickly they mess it up.

Nice cozy bedding for the chicks

I have the chick waterer all ready to go.  When the chicks arrive, we'll fill this with a water/honey solution, dip their beaks in it to ensure they drink a little bit and then put the waterer in the brooder with them so they can drink at will. 

Chick waterer

I've positioned the heat lamp directly over the brooder.  I can adjust the height of the lamp to regulate the temperature of the birds.  You don't want them too hot or too cold.  They'll tell you, though.  If you see them huddled up in a pile, they're too cold.  You don't want this.  They'll suffocate each other.  Even if they don't, they're using energy to keep warm that they could be using to grow.  On the other hand if they are far away from the heat lamp, it's too hot.  What you want to see is normal spacing between chicks, with them walking around comfortably.  This is what you want.  A comfortable, un-stressed, happy bird spends its energy growing.  It pays to observe them very often and note their disposition so that you can manage their environment and make changes if need be.

The brooder is all ready for the first batch of 50 birds to be delivered tomorrow

No matter how many times you've done it, it is always exciting to get the baby chicks in.  We're ready for them.