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.
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.
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.
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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