broiler chicks – Living de Good Life

This life we’ve chosen isn’t an easy one, but as you know if you’ve followed my posts for any length of time, that it is a good life! Not only is it a good life for the humans here on “de Good Life Farm”, but we do our very best to make sure it is a good life for the animals we care for here on the farm, regardless of how long they are here.

Last night we loaded up the meat chickens we have been raising for a little more than seven weeks. Now, I am not really a fan of these chickens, other than for dinner, but I have taken very seriously the care I give them. Each morning after milking and other chores are done, it’s time to move them to a new spot of pasture. We have done this from their very first day in the pasture, so by now they are used to the routine.

Now, I say that I’m not a fan, but I absolutely love chicks! They come to us in the mail, in a box, only one day old! Their cute fluffiness is irresistible to me! We carefully count each one and introduce them to feed and water and settle them in the brooder box with a heat lamp since they cannot regulate their own temperature and they don’t have a mama to sit under to keep warm. They are so adorable as they begin to examine their new surroundings.

They grow and change very quickly. Within a week or so, they begin to get their adult feathers and get very adept at running around the brooder box and over and on top of any other chick that might be in their way! They have voracious appetites and are so much fun to watch! As they begin to “feather out” (get their adult feathers), they become less cute, in my opinion, but it is a rather quick metamorphosis.

By the time they are three weeks of age, they are feathered out so that they no longer need the heat lamp and can be moved to the pasture and this begins their daily routine of fresh pasture grass and learning to walk with the chicken tractor each day.

Micah gets the tractor and fresh water and I get the feed and we meet at the chicken tractors. It didn’t take very many days before the chickens recognized that the sound of the tractor meant it was time to get fed. You see, we put the feed in the feeders, remove the waters and hook up the chicken tractor to the tractor and start moving. They are so interested in the feed that they compliantly walk along as the tractor moves the pen. When we have moved one section ahead so that they have new grass, we stop, unhook the tractor and put the fresh water into the pen. This has been our routine every day for four and a half weeks, until yesterday.

Since yesterday was the day they were to be delivered to the butcher, we did everything the same except that after we moved them to new grass, we removed their food, per instructions from the butcher. They had fresh water and fresh air and fresh grass. It was a pretty nice way to spend their last day. Then, last night, we loaded them into crates and took them to the butcher.

The chicken tractors seemed so silent where just hours before they were bustling with chickens looking for their next meal. I have to admit that it pangs my heart a little bit. I don’t think you can care for something, even for as short a time as seven and a half weeks, and not feel somewhat emotional when you know their lives are over, even when it’s been planned from their hatch date.

Now mind you, I am not crying. I am so thankful that they will provide healthy and delicious meals for our family and for other families who choose to buy from us, but I recognize that creatures that came to us just a day old and lived a good life here on the farm, had their one bad day and are now in our freezer. Just one bad day! That’s actually a pretty good life, don’t you think?

Maybe I just think too much, but I think all life is valuable. They were hatched to be raised, to be butchered for our food, but I do feel somewhat pensive and so very thankful for their sacrifice! But, in the meantime, I will completely enjoy the delicious nutrition they will provide for us!

Our broiler chicks have arrived! They are so cute and noisy at this stage of their lives! They were hatched just yesterday morning and shipped via the United States Post Office. “How can they do that?”, you may ask. The expert at Meyer Hatchery says that they absorb the yoke while they are in the egg and that nutrient-dense meal sustains them for seventy-two hours! It truly is amazing!

So when they arrive, they are typically twenty-four hours old (occasionally they won’t arrive for another day but that hasn’t been our experience) and are huddled all together in the box. We ordered fifty “straight-run” Cornish Cross chicks. “Straight-run” means that they are not sexed at the time of hatching. “Cornish Cross” is the breed, known for being a fast-growing, fast-feathering meat bird.

They are extremely “talky” on their trip home. Usually there is one peep that is louder and more demanding than the others. Often, this turns out to be a male. (No kidding!)

It is extremely important that they stay warm, which is one of the reasons they are shipped in such tight quarters. They huddle together to keep warm. Our job, once we remove them from the box, is to create a warm environment which enables them to be under the heat lamp if they need warmth, but also gives them access to feed and water.

Our routine when we take a chick out of the box is we gently “dunk” their beak into the water and then into the feed and then set them down. This helps them know there is food and water but by doing it in this order, the water allows a little feed to stick to their beak which entices them to find more. When we set each chick down, we call out the next sequential number. The hatchery from where we order them, usually sends an extra couple of chicks in case one or two don’t make it. We have had some years where all 52 made it and some years when we lost three or four. If we lose more chicks in the first couple of days than the extra chicks the hatchery included, they will replace them, so it’s important to know how many we start with.

Micah introducing them to their water and then food.

Gradually as they mature, they will need the heat less and less and when they are about three weeks old and feathered out, if the weather permits, they will be transferred to chicken tractors in the pasture and have access to the nutrients the pasture grass and the sun provide. A chicken tractor is basically a bottomless chicken pen that gets pulled around by the tractor to new pasture grass. This way, the chickens have new grass every day.

three week old broiler chicks just put into the pasture (2017)

These chicks will be ready for butchering between 7-8 weeks. Their “one bad day” has already been scheduled for the second Saturday in June. Because they are meat chickens they will mature more rapidly than laying breeds and they will be nicely filled out by that time.

Meat chickens in their chicken tractor almost ready for their “one bad day” (2017)

So for now, we keep their brooder box clean, fresh water (with electrolytes) and feed available and make sure the temperature is right for them. The first couple of years, I was out there with a thermometer checking the temperature frequently. However, now I know that I can tell by their behavior whether the temperature is right. If they are frantically huddling together all the time, then it is probably not warm enough. If they are scurrying to get away from the heat, sometimes going to the extreme of the opposite corner of the brooder box, then I know they are too warm. What we have found is that at this stage, they will want to be under the warmth of the heat lamp but will run/hop out to get food and water and then back to the warmth. This behavior indicates that they are fairly contented with their environment.

One of the wonderful things about the way we farm is how the animals here nurture the ground as the ground nurtures them. The chicken and cow manure, because they are raised in the pasture, provides nutrients to the ground to make the pasture healthier. Likewise, the grass in the pasture, because it is so high in nutrients, gives our cattle and chicks the healthiest diet which in turn, enables them to grow strong and healthy. There is a beautiful order to the way God created His world!

We didn’t raise meat chickens last year and I have really missed having my own delicious, pasture-raised chicken. In my opinion, there is nothing as delicious as a chicken raised here on the farm. I am really looking forward to reaping the rewards of raising these chicks in the best and healthiest way possible so that they can provide health for our bodies as well as for other families who choose to purchase chicken from us.

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Tag: broiler chicks

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