A Large Box of Chicken To Go

Our 23 baby chicks that we hatched in our incubator turn 3 weeks old at the beginning of next week. Once they hatched out and were completely dry, we moved them to our brooder in the garage.  We kept a heat lamp on them for the first couple of days, but let's be serious.  In late August you don't need a heat lamp to keep the temperatures in the 90's!  We just kept our eyes on them.  They'll tell you if they are cold by huddling up together.

Chickens that are kept in a confined space for any time at all will start to smell. They soil the bedding in the brooder rather quickly and the resulting odor in a hot, humid garage is not one you look forward to when opening the door to the car. Normally, after two weeks we move the chicks out to the pasture and into a chicken tractor where we allow them to grow on grass.  We push the tractor so that they enjoy fresh grass each day.  We normally keep them in the tractor until they are around 24 weeks of age.  When they lay their first egg, we open the door to the tractor and they are free range birds.

Keeping them in the tractor does several things:  It allows them to be on grass while they are growing and protects them from predators, both the four-footed kind and the winged ones.  It also trains them where they are to roost.  Our tractors have roosting bars on them and they return each night to roost there.  One of our tractors has nesting boxes, so they learn to lay their eggs there.  Here is Benjamin holding three of the chicks now:

Three week old chicks

They are just getting their feathers and are fat and healthy.  Tricia was able to find some Organic, Non-soy, Non-GMO, Non-medicated Chicken starter feed at the feed store.  They have been doing well on it, but it is about $10 per bag more expensive than the regular feed and the little boogers tend to waste a bunch of it.

The chicken tractor that we normally move chicks into has been used as our Great Pyrenees, Big Boy's, dog house out in the pasture.  Big Boy promptly tore the chicken wire off of it, so I'll need to repair it.  In the interim, Benjamin and I devised a way to move them out of the brooder until I can get their chicken tractor ready. We moved them out of the brooder and into a chicken coop that we sat on top of our utility wagon.

Moving Day

We lined the bottom of the chicken coop with fresh hay and moved the waterer and feeder into it. Then we began moving the little birds into their new, albeit temporary, home.  They have a lot more room to run around and were noticeably excited.

Inspecting the new place

They look so alert and healthy!  As discussed earlier, we have many different breeds of roosters and hens so many of them will be mixed breeds.  The ones in the photo below with the black legs/feet have some Aracauna in them and if they are hens, that means they'll lay the pretty blue and green eggs.

Our Fine Feathered Friends

So here is our plan:  Until I get the chicken tractor ready, we'll keep the chicks in the coop atop the wagon.  We will wheel them outside in the fresh breeze during the day and then pull them back into the garage at night - a mobile chicken ranching operation.

"I'd like a large box of chicken to go, please."

Here is the bottom of the brooder.  It is full of soiled hay and a lot of wasted Organic, high-dollar feed.  Around here, though, nothing goes to waste.  Benjamin and I carried the brooder out to the pasture and turned it on its side.

The bottom of the barrel

In no time flat, we had attracted a whole bevy of birds that scavenged through the feed that the little birds wasted.  They scratched and pecked and ate everything that was left over.  

Our chickens don't let anything go to waste - they recycle

Once the brooder was cleaned out, we put it back in the hen house, where it will sit in storage until we need it again in early Spring when the meat birds arrive.  And about that time, the pullets will have laid their first eggs and be ready to set free to forage on the pasture.