Can You Hear the Chirping?

Nope, I'm not talking about the smoke detector with the battery going out.  It's that time again.  We pulled out one of the last remaining gallon bags of cut up chicken and figured out that it's time to order Cornish Cross Meat Birds.  I priced around and ended up ordering from the hatchery that's nearest us - Ideal Poultry in Cameron, TX.

Let me tell ya, day old meat bird chicks are doggone expensive these days!  We ordered 50 of them.  When all the dust settled after the shipping, taxes and fees added in, they were $4.38 per bird.  You read that right.  I had a little sticker shock but put the order in.  They confirmed the shipment for September 16th.  This morning we got a call from our local post office: "You have a box of live birds.  Come and get them."  We did.  We could hear the chirping when we opened the post office door.  Well, my wife could.  I'm as deaf as a post.

"I'd like a box of chicken.  No sides."

After leaving the post office, we went to the feed store and bought some 28% protein game bird starter.  Once home, I went to the barn and pulled down from the storage in the loft some metal siding we use as a brooder and got it all set up in the chicken tractor, dangling a heat lamp over it and filling water containers with a water and apple cider vinegar mixture.  I was going to use the paper to put feed on, but Tricia convinced me to use our chicken feed troughs instead.

We pray no varmints eat our chickens before we do.

Let's see the success rate of mailing live birds through the US postal service.  I pulled off the top of the box.  They seemed to be mighty content.  Not a single one dead.  Now the first task is I take them out of the box, counting them.  I dip their little heads in water and make sure they drink.  Then I set them down in the brooder.  Rinse. Wash. Repeat.  We got 51 birds.  They usually will give you a little lagniappe in the even that some die in transit.

"Tweet, tweet."

They are cute little critters - right now.  However, they don't stay cute for very long.  Each week for the next 8 weeks - likely on Wednesday, we'll take you on a journey with us so you can see their growth - from cradle to grave.  Sounds harsh, I know, but we raise these chicks for food.  In eight weeks they should be 8 pounds and yield a 6 pound carcass.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Here are all 51 chicks in their new home.  They are all spread out and that lets you know that the heat lamp is positioned correctly.  If it was too hot, they'd be up against the wall.  If it was too cold, they'd be all piled up.  They'll stay in the brooder until they get feathers and then we'll remove the brooder and let them forage on grass in the backyard as we push the chicken tractor so they get fresh grass each day.  They'll fertilize the soil so that the white Dutch clover and the crimson clover comes up lush this spring.  The honeybees will love it!  Ah, the circle of life.  Everyone benefits, well, almost everyone.  I walked out tonight to check on them and heard a peck, peck, pecking sound.  As I got nearer, I saw that the heat lamp was attracting mosquitoes.  The chicks were eating the mosquitoes as they were attracted to the light.  Very opportunistic.  

We put a blue tarp on top of the chicken tractor to help keep them dry in case of rain, fastening the tarp down with zip ties but leaving the ends and bottom open to keep good air flow going.

Hopefully, we'll be bringing a sizable amount of these 51 birds to butcher some time around mid-November.