Moving Day for the Chicks

We had our first showing of snow this winter. Flurries that melted as soon as they touched the ground. It lasted about twenty minutes to be followed by rain and more rain as the mercury in the thermometer rose to the daily high of 50 degrees. Now on to the chicks...                                                                                                       
 
Of the fifteen Assorted Rainbow chicks we bought from Meyer's Hatchery, fourteen made it to four weeks old. One chick died just after its one week birthday. Today is moving day for the rest of the chicks. They are fully feathered, and over the past week, they've been acclimating to the colder temperatures during the day. They are honestly too big to stay in the 2x4x2 brooder box. They've quadrupled in size and have been trying to fly.

We contemplated setting up a bigger area for them to brood them a little while longer, but figured we'd just move them to the new grow out coop instead. This grow out area was built inside the old hoop greenhouse. It's within 10 feet of my bedroom window. It will be easy enough to run a power cord out to it from the house for a heat lamp. It is only February with nighttime lows in the 20s. They are still too little to are cuddle together for extra warmth they still need.

Soon our girls will be this big.

They have plenty of fresh straw for bedding. The two-gallon poultry waterer and feeder will be put to good use again until spring thaw will allow the automatic drinking cups can be used. We set up a 35-gallon rain harvesting bucket just for this purpose. The gravity fed system will give them ample hydration during our hot weather months. The automatic feeder (4" PVC pipe)will hold a few days worth of feed for them. They are both situated under the coop for protecting the feed from the weather.

So for the next couple of weeks, their coop will be their brooder and home while we build their outside run, There is still space within the greenhouse structure for them to explore and be outside all within the 3' tall pallet sided area. For the base of the open area and run is dried leaves 1' thick for them to scratch in, and bona fide dust bath area full of sand and wood ash for their pleasure. Until now, they've made do bathing in pine shavings.

We hope!👍

As soon as the hens are big enough, they'll join their sisters in the bunny/chicken barn. In March, we'll be ordering more chicks and quail hatching eggs to kick off Mel's poultry farm off with a bang. This order for chicks will include roosters. The plan is to order chicks in lots of twenty throughout spring and summer every other month so we have a good mix of bloodlines to start. From there she can hatch out our own eggs.

The focus of the first year is egg production and sales. She's laid out a delivery system for a three county area. The second year, she'll sell chicks, poulets, layers, and roosters for added income. Again, each sets of chickens and quail must pay their own way and fund the next set of coops and runs. The quail have a quicker turn around time in the profit margin so selling both is good business sense.

More pictures of Mel's growing poultry farm coming soon!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo