Home, Home On the Range...

… Where the deer and the antelope play… (Chickens too!)

What is a range anyway?  Well the dictionary defines a range as any number of things, but one of them is Range: An extensive area of open land on which livestock wander and graze.  That’s the range we’re talking about.  A range would NOT be a brooder in the garage and that is where the meat birds have lived for the past two weeks.  So what do we have to do to move them out to the range?

First things first.  We must move the pullets out of the small chicken tractor where they’ve lived since mid-October.  The small tractor will house the meat birds now for the next 8-10 weeks of their lives.  You can see the pullets (and a few roosters and guineas) in the small tractor.  They are ready for moving day.

They've outgrown their "mobile home"

Before I move the pullets to the bigger tractor shown below, there’s a task that must be done…

The pullets' new, bigger chicken tractor

These pullets will be released from the tractor to free-range (there’s that word again) as soon as they lay their first egg – which should be in the next week or so.  Obviously raising them to this age, I would hate to have them fly over our fence and become dog food – literally, so I need to clip their wings.  Here is a before shot.

Full-feather

And below is an after shot.  I clip the wings with tin snips and I only clip one of the wings.  That keeps them off balance and unable to fly.  Reminds me of when we were younger and we were threatened by our parents that if we didn't straighten up, we'd 'get our wings clipped,' - that meant we were grounded.  Now I understand!  I clipped each and every pullet and cockerel.  I counted 27 pullets and 4 cockerels.

Wings Clipped

Finally, it is time to move the pullets into their newer, more spacious chicken tractor. You’ll note two of the guinea fowl walking around the outside.  When I tried to catch them to clip their wings, they promptly flew out and way up into a tree.  They are now enjoying their freedom a little earlier than I had hoped.

On the outside looking in

With the pullet tractor vacated, I moved the heat lamps and feed troughs from the brooder in the garage and ran an extension cord to the pasture.  Then I had Benjamin help me move the meat birds 10 at a time in a big blue tub into the chicken tractor.  Almost immediately, they began checking out their new “digs,” enjoying the extra elbow room.  52 fat little birds happy to be on grass.  Believe it or not after a day in the tractor, they had clipped the grass down, so I pushed it one tractor length to fresh grass.  They are now officially ‘Home on the Range.”

On grass instead of wood shavings

A few well-wishers came to the house warming party, welcoming the new neighbors to the cul de sac:

Welcome to the neighborhood (No longer the new kids on the block)

There’s just one more thing to do.  In a true “shovel-ready job,” I’ve got to shovel the wood shavings/chicken poop out of the brooder in the garage and work that into the garden soil to grow healthy vegetables.  Everything is a big cycle that goes back to the soil.

So empty, quiet, and serene after the chicks were moved out

Tomorrow we’ll bring you the report on the Week 3 weigh-in of the meat birds.  Stay tuned…