It's always fun to watch new chicks in the brooder. They scurry around hither-thither, pecking at this and peeping at that. The slightest unfamiliar noise can send them scurrying into the far corners of the brooder in a panic.
They're fun to hold when they're real little. They fit in the palm of your hand and look up at you with dark, inquisitive eyes. They're soft and downy since their feathers have not grown in yet. The broilers (the chickens we raise for meat) are a yellowy, white color. We order them from a hatchery and they ship them to us as day old chicks in the mail. That is the only age at which they can ship poultry because for the first three days after they hatch, they are still digesting the yoke of the egg. Isn't that fascinating?
After about two weeks they are old enough to go out to pasture and spend the next six weeks following the cows in rotation on our organic fields where they can peck for bugs, enjoy free choice, non-GMO feed and forage around in the fresh air and sunshine. This lifesyle makes for healthy, happy birds. This natural, animal friendly model is more labor intensive and costly but the quality of these birds is something the super market will never be able to beat.
-Morgan
