2018 Meat Birds - Three Weeks Old

Well, I'll have to get a better photo in the daytime.  For some reason, I was convinced that I had pictures that documented us moving our chicks from the brooder in the garage out into the chicken tractor in the back yard.  At about two weeks of age, the chicks began really stinking up the place.  It seems no matter how much wood shavings that you put down, they cover them with poop quickly.

It was nice to move them out on grass.  I promise to post pictures of the chicken tractor.  Here is a photo that I took at night with the chicks in the tractor eating chick grower and drinking water.  Eat, drink, sit, poop.  That's pretty much what these birds do.  I still have heat lamps on them because it has been cool at night and a little breezy.  You want to keep them comfortable.  Uncomfortable birds don't eat, and birds that don't eat, don't grow.

As I do each week, I reach down and grab an average-sized bird and bring him (or her) into the garage.  Notice the feet on this monster!  Just holding this bird, you can feel the body heat that it puts out.  You can also feel how solidly built this bird is.  I would say that this is about the size that a Cornish hen is when you eat it.  We'll let our bird grow for at least another 5 weeks.

I had to work with the bird to keep him still on top of the scale.  He did not want to cooperate.  He jumped down from the scale and pooped on my workbench.  Uncouth, I think.  Finally, I got him on the scale.

Here we go: 
This week - Week 3 - the bird weighed in at 1 pound 10 ounces.
Last week the bird weighed 18 ounces, giving him a weight gain of 8 ounces.
In week 3 of 2017, they weighed 1 pound 9 ounces.
In week 3 of 2016, they weighed 1 pound 15 ounces.

We haven't lost any more birds since we moved them outside.  They seem to be very comfortable and I'm pleased with their growth rate.  I think they are right on schedule.  Now we do have chances of rain on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  That is always an interesting time, wondering if the birds are going to be safe in the storm.  One of the first years we started doing this, we lost all 25 birds in a rainstorm to hypothermia.

We will report in next week!