Chickies!

Chickies in Brooder!!!!!!

Our first batch of chicks came in today. This seems as another one of those landmarks of the season- starting first tomatoes, piglets, first baby chick order, first tomato, first cornish game hen dinner...mmmm

So we got 100 of these little buggers in. Jack bought 20 of them to raise on their farm. So I have 70 left. At the end of two weeks they will get moved to the "half way house" which is a small coop outside that can be completely covered and heated if needed, but otherwise the little chickies get access to fresh grass, and to explore their little world- thus we call it the "half way house". After that they get moved straight out to the fields until yummie time.

We do not have a set date for market day with these birds. I just grab birds that look the biggest, and go from there. Sometimes I overlook a few and the next week we get some real monster sized birds at the market. (Our largest last year was a 13 pounder that snuck in and lived with the turkeys.)

But alas, I am quite excited about seeing our new property and these quick growing, manure making, heavy pooping, grass grazing, meat producing, juicy, delicious, savory, gourmet chickies come in. They fix up the pasture very nicely. They can deweed it, fertilize it, scratch open crowns of plants to grow thicker, and at the end of it all you get three meals out of each one. The only real problem with them is they can be finicky- as little stress as possible the better. So I am going back over to the property now to check on them, and probably to spend the night with them. Come on over if you want, otherwise the 80 chickies and I will just spend the night staying up late and gossipping and what not.
A couple hens decided a pail full of roofing nails was a good spot to use as a nest. I said our hens were antibiotic/hormone free- not smart...
Zac