Our first batch of broiler chicks arrived today. Thus begins our 2009 growing season! Early this morning we got a call from the post office informing us that our chicks had arrived. Mom and Hannah went to pick them up while Dad, Katie, Will and I (Morgan) did last minute set up of the brooders, which includes setting up and filling the waters and feeders, turning on the heat lamps and securing any places where the cold air might seep in and make it too cold for them. (Earlier that week we had emptied the brooders of last years bedding and put in fresh sweet smelling pine shavings.) And when the chicks got here, Dad and William gently placed them in the brooder and closed the doors to keep the heat in. Instead of giving our chicks "bad for them, bad for us" antibiotics, for the first week we feed them raw milk from our own cows which helps them get off to a good start, is very good for their little digestive tracts, and protects them naturally from Coccidia. The chicks will stay in the brooders for four weeks (two weeks in the summer time) and then they will be moved out to pasture and live in our portable, open air, Hoop Houses, eating fresh grass, bugs and a non-medicated grain supplement which we have done at a local mill, and soaking up the sunshine until they are eight weeks old and ready to be processed. They start out at just a couple ounces and in eight weeks will dress out to average 3-3 1/2lbs!
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