Cheep! Cheep!

For the Sunday after church meal, my wife was planning on making Chicken Etoufee.  We always like rice & gravy for lunch.  She informed me that when she reached into our deep freeze to get a chicken out to thaw, we were down to our last bird!  We still have a few bags of the roosters that we butchered from the birds we hatched out, but as far as the meat birds we raised, they are almost gone.

Tricia told me that she had seen some Cornish Cross meat birds at Tractor Supply.  Normally, we order them by mail directly from the hatchery, but hey, if Tractor Supply has them, we'd save on shipping.  Saturday afternoon we went to Tractor Supply.  They had 7 Cornish Cross (straight run) left.  We said, "We'll take 'em!"  She told us they normally get more each Wednesday AM.  I made a note to check back on Wednesday.  Seven birds won't last us very long.  We put the seven little birds in our brooder under the heat lamp.  The fence on top puts a lid on (pardon the pun) the temptation that our cat, Ginger, might have in getting a chicken dinner under the heat lamp.

I was passing through Jennings today at lunch and pulled into Tractor Supply Company.  They had just received an order of 25 Cornish Cross meat birds this morning.  I said, "I'll take 'em all!"  She boxed them up for me.  They were all eating organic chick grower 18% protein.  At $2.99 per bird with NO shipping, this was a better deal than ordering by mail, where they were $3.30 per bird before shipping.

One box had 12 and the other had 13 chicks.  They all appeared healthy and happy, moving around and making "Cheep, cheep" noises.  Here's what they looked like when I unboxed them.

I picked one up and put it in my hand.  This is when they are still in their 'cute' stage.

And here is a profile shot, just like Olan Mills used to do:

I added the new arrivals in with the other, larger 7 birds.  Those seven are probably a week older.  The younger chicks weren't intimidated.  They ran around like they owned the place while their 7 larger counterparts watched their brooder be over-run by the new chicks.

I added more food and filled their water container, adding a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.  This weekend, weather permitting, I'll move them out into the chicken tractor.  Hard to believe, but in 8 short weeks, we'll be butchering them and they'll move into the deep freeze, hopefully before our remaining inventory is exhausted.