I did things a little different this year to experiment. First, we normally order the baby chicks to be delivered in two batches - late December and early January. What we've noticed is that during those times we experience bad weather with freezing conditions and rain. My hypothesis is that even though we have a heat lamp over them, the chicks are burning calories keeping warm that they could be using to grow. Warmer temps should result in a more efficient use of calories and I want to test out that theory. Secondly, in January and February, there is not a whole lot of grass growing in the pasture for them to eat as I push them to a fresh area each day. Ordering them a month and a half later, we should be able to see more favorable growth patterns due to the temperature and additional grass for them to forage on in addition to the feed.
I'll post once a week status updates on the birds to test out our theory. I like a set method of doing things, and we've been pretty successful raising chickens over the years, but I'm open to learning better ways. I ordered the birds online and on Tuesday, February 10th, I got an email from the hatchery that our birds had shipped and that we could expect them at the Post Office within 72 hours. Thursday morning at around 6:00 am we received a call from the Post Office stating, "We have a package for you. It's ALIVE!" Tricia motored downtown and picked up a box of chicken.
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| Box of chicks |
Secondly, they don't have food or water for 3 days. The way they accomplish that is that prior to hatching, the chicks eat the egg yolk, giving them nutrition to make it for the 3 day transit period. Pretty neat, huh?
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| Opening up the box |
Baby chicks are some cute little boogers. There is something uplifting about holding a baby chick in your hands. They are a little puff ball, light and full of energy. Too bad they don't stay cute for long, so we enjoy this stage while we can.
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| Baby Chick |
The very first thing we do is fill the chick waterers with water and dip their little beaks into the water and make sure that all of them drink. I've read that you can even add some honey to the water for extra energy. It's been a long trip and they've got to be thirsty, so we ensure they wet their whistles.
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| Time for a drink |
Chicks will sip the water and then lift their heads, tilting them back and swallow. We make sure that all have swallowed and then we put them down in the brooder. We ordered 110 chicks this year and I'll explain further - I have another experiment going on. I ordered 100 Cornish Cross Meat birds and, as a first for us, I ordered 10 Red Rangers.
The Cornish Cross birds are freaks of nature. They are like machines and have been bred to grow astronomically fast, turning protein from the feed into muscle. They aren't much on grazing. They mainly eat, poop, and sit down. They are ready for butchering in 8 short weeks. The Red Rangers, by comparison, are a meat bird that are more 'natural.' They graze more on grass and are ready for butchering in 12 weeks. I wanted to try a batch of these and see how we do with them.
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| This chick quenched his thirst |
After watering each chick and counting them, we actually had 117 chicks delivered versus the 110 ordered. Lots of times hatcheries do this. Invariably, there are babies that perish during transit, like the two you see in the box below. Although the hatcheries have an 'honor system' where you call in if you have loss during transit, the extra they give you generally make up for any you lose. Even the dead chicks help us out as we bury them in the compost pile. So 117 minus 2 = 115 birds.
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| RIP little chicks |
You don't have to purchase a fancy set-up to raise chickens. The investment can be as little or as great as you want. I have a brooder I built on the left and a chicken coop that I altered on the right to be a brooder. You have to keep the chicks warm or they will die. To accomplish this I anchored a rope onto the garage door and stretched and attached it to a ladder on the other side that I weighed down with a sack of feed. Then I have 3 heat lamps hanging off the rope providing the heat they need. We have 35 chicks in each compartment of the brooder on the right and 45 in the one on the left. If you're wondering where the cars are, they are outside. Baby chicks trump the cars for garage space during the 2 - 4 week time frame we have them in the brooder. If the weather cooperates, I'll try to move these out sooner.
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| Our makeshift brooders |
The first week of their lives they need to be kept at 95 degrees, the second week, 90 degrees and reducing the temperature by 5 degrees until they are ready to go outside. The chicks will tell you if they are too hot or too cold - you simply have to watch them. If they are piled up on top of each other in a tight ball, you need to lower the heat lamp. If there is an empty space beneath your lamp and the chicks are scattered away from the lamp, you know you need to raise it as the chicks are too hot. When they are scattered out evenly like in the photo below, you know the temperature is just right.
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| Comfortable baby chicks. |
We place the waterers in the brooder along with a feed tray and we're diligent about keeping their water and feed filled at all times. They will eat and drink voraciously, so you have to be on your toes. Once a week we will give status updates on our birds and we'll weigh them and report on their growth and the results of our experiments.
Love that chicken from Popeye's? Nah, we love that chicken from Our Maker's Acres Family Farm!
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