When the 16 chicks hatched out of our incubator, as soon as they were dried off, we moved them out into the garage. We have a makeshift brooder with a heat lamp set up. I put newspaper on the concrete and then covered it with hay so that the chicks don't make too big a mess. We always aim to move them out on grass in a natural setting as soon as possible.
Besides, they share the garage with Ginger, our cat. She aggressively hunts, recently killing a bird that got trapped in the garage. I don't want her to eat our chicks. Tricia did not like that I suggested that Ginger would do such a thing. I didn't mean to impugn Ginger's character, but I don't trust her, fully, so I loaded up the 16 chicks in a tub.
We're moving the birds out to our chicken tractor that will be the chicks' home until the hens lay their first egg and the cockrels identify themselves as males. At that point we'll move the hens out to the pasture with the rest of the flock and the roosters into our freezer.
Since it can still get chilly at night, I moved the brooder out and set it up in the chicken tractor along with the heat lamp dangling from a chain to keep the birds warm and toasty.
They seem to really like being on grass. Their instincts kick in and they began scratching and pecking at grass seeds and grass. Pretty soon, we'll have an onslaught of beetles. They are attracted to light and so I catch them and feed them to the birds. Good protein for them!
The chicks look healthy and alert. We want them to get a good start. They will start laying somewhere between 18-24 weeks.
Just this week, for some reason, we've lost 2 chickens to drowning in the water trough and one to predators. I'm already itching to get the incubator running again to hatch out some more!
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