brooding meaties, no electricity!

A bunch of the extra solar power here is currently being used by the incubator and egg turner. Still, somebody just could not help themselves and brought home 20 broiler chicks! Nevermind not being able to run a brood lamp.
This is day two of them being inside by the wood stove, they seem to have acclimated to the fluctuating temps pretty well. I see feathers coming in a bit early, this is good. They do huddle to stay warm at times but I have not lost any yet. I put a gallon jug of hot water in their box to keep them warm at night.

They seem like the happy healthy little eating pooping machines they were bred to be!

All are doing well with no losses or problems.Today is their first day outside, I set up a tiny chicken rotational grazing system of sorts. When they get bigger I plan on using step in posts and snow fencing to keep them contained. Dogs do a good job of predator control so not too concerned about keeping them in such shoddy fencing if it is in the inmediate yard or pasture area.
Any suggestions on a mobile little house for these guys?

Hi Shannon,
I'm in Northern Ca also.

I have wondered about being without electricity while I'm brooding. Our power has gone out often. Leaving us with no water or flushing toilet. Our house is usually 60 degrees (we are climate-ised). Usually storming when it happens, so no sun. And even our pellet stove needs power to run the fan/auger. Learning to keep water on hand. No power also means no water pump. This is the first time being on well/septic and I love it. Our water taste awesome! I think I better get a generator. Solar would be nice, but we're not there yet...

Sounds like you are doing pretty well for them. The warm bottle is a great idea.

Thanks! The chicks will still have to be inside at night for awhie but should feather out a little faster being out during the daytime.

A generator is a good thing for unreliable power. I use mine some in the winter but mostly during the summer to run an a/c. I do not have enough power to run one of those, but yeah solar power is usually a pretty cool thing.

What part of norcal do you hail from? I live in Shasta.

Shasta is pretty. I am in Crescent City. Moved up here a year and a half ago planning for retirement. I love it here. My hubby is still working, he commutes from Redding (5 hours each way) every other weekend. It's difficult, but a sacrifice we chose to make for the betterment of our families' future. We used to live in Bakersfield. My ac bill was $550 three months in a row the year we moved up here. And the air we were breathing was brown. I know your air is not too bad except maybe during fire season.

I am planning to raise meaties maybe later this year. I am not sure how it will go when it comes harvest time and then dinner time. I am soft hearted. But I hope the knowledge that the atrocities of chicken industry are not being supported with my dollars will ease my heart, mind, and tummy. I have some straight run chicks now and more coming in August. We are planning to eat all except maybe 2 roos.

Yep, this is a cute little town. I am not in Mt. Shasta, rather Old Shasta just west of Redding. The air here is just terrible during fire season and so is the cooling bill! Still, much better than further south in the state.

With the butchering, the first time is always the hardest. It might help you your first time perhaps, if you learned with a bird you did not raise from a chick. The process gets easier after the first few.

I actually wanted to hold a processing class later this year. Something like a $25-30 flat fee to come out and have me show how to butcher one of my own birds (less guilt for beginners), you take the bird home and eat it afterward. I could teach I think 4 people at a time, I wouldn't have table space for more than that. I would cover everything you need to know from the coop to the freezer or table.
I got tired of people asking me to do their birds and want to teach people this skill for themselves. I have enough experience, I think, about 6 years of butchering chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineafowl, ect. I have done some larger 4 legged critters as well.

Huh... that's funny I was born and raised for the first 12 years of my life in Nor-Cal... where are you located? just out of curiosity i lived in Marin county most of my life there in a Coast Guard base

ShannonR- Ya, I was thinking about having someone come over and do basically that! It's a great idea. You do like to go on vacation right?.... I wonder, how many birds can you feasibly process in 1 day?

TroyerGal, I'm in Del Norte county ( nort, no "ay" sound as I'm told by the locals), at the Ca/Or border on the coast. I've been here less than 2 years. You ever coming back to Cali?

Probably not... maybe to visit my family in the future.
We really like WV! But Cali was great too