100 Broilers and Fermented Feed Project

[Angelicisi]

Oh crap! Lol!
If they don't call me lol I have extra large brooders lol

Yep. I hope that everyone who ordered them will pick them up.

 

[Angelicisi]

while I *hope* you don't get stuck with 1100 extra...one has to admit that's be an amazing sight at 3 weeks let alone 8 weeks

 

[Angelicisi]

Im so excited to see someone else close by do this lol hubby wants more so you will be a deciding vote for bigger batches hehehe

 

[CackedNut]

while I *hope* you don't get stuck with 1100 extra...one has to admit that's be an amazing sight at 3 weeks let alone 8 weeks

I'd pay money to see THAT sight!!!

 

[larry529]

Kuntry I changed my mind on the 30 I wanted @kuntrygirl lol

 

[Angelicisi]

Ahaha she is very busy counting. Lol I only have 49 and took me 20 minutes squirrelly lil peeps.
Wait...did I order any? Lol I *think* you told me about them and my AG ext did it too so I didn't have too...but...lol let me know doh.

...

Kuntry I changed my mind on the 30 I wanted @kuntrygirl lol[/quot

 

[Angelicisi]

Psssst. Hey. Psssst. Peep peep? you still with us? Lol gonna have to send a search party...we will follow the peeping!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Good morning everyone. Sorry that I didn't post last night but I had to get all of them situated and it took me longer than expected and I still had to feed the rest of the zoo animals.

So, I picked up all of them at 3:30 PM on yesterday They were all packed in a square box with dividers and were chirping away. I opened the box and fall that all of them were alive.

Got home and brought them inside the house as I got their water and feed ready in the brooder in the garage. I had the FF in the garage and it was cold. I was afraid that it would be too cold for the broilers. I will be moving it inside. Once everything was ready for them and the brooder lights were turned on, I put all of them in. I had 2 thermometers in the brooder to keep an eye on temps. After about 5 minutes, they started to huddle in the corner by the heat lamp. I looked at the temp at the temps were 88 degrees. I had 2 heat lamps stationed at different places in the brooders and both groups were directly under the heat lamp and bunched up together. I adjusted the heat lamps and got the temps up to 99 degrees. Then were still huddled in the corner under the heat lamps but I didn’t adjust the temps any more. I figured that they would settle down and move about and get comfortable.

I put the FF in their feeders but no one seemed too interested in the feed which was ok . I figured that they would eventually start eating once they got comfortable with their surroundings.

Here is a pic of one of the feeders that I used.

A few of them noticed the feed and started pecking at it. I saw that they were stepping into the feeder because I didn’t have tops on the make-shift feeders. The FF was a little too mushy because the ones that were stepping in the feed were getting stuck as if it were quick sand. So, I had to take them out, wipe them down and leave them inside until they dried and fluffed back up. After putting the tops on, I noticed later on that some were getting stuck inside the feeder top holes. So that was another problem. I had to take the tops off and get them out.

Here are pics of another feeder that I am using.

As I’m checking on them and working in the brooder, I’m noticing that the brooder is not the size that I need for these broilers and definitely not wide enough. It was pretty much non-functional for me or the chicks. When I say non-functional I mean that I would have preferred more width as opposed to the length. The 2.2 ft width didn’t allow the chicks a lot of area to move in that particular direction. The door opening areas are too small and too tight for me to get in and out. The need for and the frequency of me needing to get in and out of the brooder if there are any problems and to simply feed and water the chicks requires a larger opening. And the heat lamps are stationed in the corners of the brooder, so in order for them to warm up, they have to huddle in the corner. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that this brooder was someone else’s (non-chicken person) idea. I initially DID NOT want to use these shelves in the garage as a brooder because I knew that it wasn’t going to work. But I didn’t say anything to my friend that was dead set on transforming these shelves to brooder. He had been talking about this project for months. I bit my tongue every time he said something. I guess the reason that I didn’t say anything because I try to give my friend and opportunity to feel that he is a part of my little farm by being attentive and entertaining and trying his ideas but sometimes his ideas just don’t work (as this brooder is not working for me). Seeing that brooder was not going to work, I immediately went to my Plan B. Yes, I had a Plan B because I knew Plan A was not going to work. I originally wanted to put the broilers in several kiddie pools for the first couple of weeks and then to my other large wooden brooders (shipping crates) after that. So, I got my next plan going. I separated the group and took out half of them and put them in other brooders with a heat lamp. After taking them out and putting them in my preferred brooder, I immediately noticed a difference.

Here they are after putting them in another brooder. I still have to put the usual shelf liner rubber pad on the brooder floor. I'm glad to see that they are not huddled up in the corner trying to get close to the heat lamp.

I weighed 10 of them last night and their weights ranged from 1.2 oz to 1.4 oz. .

I was checking on them all night long. I think I was up every 30 minutes making sure there were no problems. I finally fell asleep at 4:00 AM and woke up at 6:30 and checked on all of them. Everyone made it through the night.

What I will have to work on his how much feed to put in the feeders so that feed is not wasted. I noticed this morning that some of the feed left from last night almost dried up. I gave that FF to my chickens in the chicken yard and put them fresh FF for today. I guess I should just remove the feed after feeding time is over.

Here is a pic of a few chicks in the leftover feed from last night.

So far, everything is ok. I’m already counting down the day to processing. I think there will be a lot of sleepless night. I’m a worrier when I have chicks and I’m up more than usual when it comes to checking on them.

I’m glad that I got them on Friday because I have the weekend to work out kinks and to make sure that they are thriving the first few days.

 

[aoxa]

They look much happier in Plan B!

They will soon not be able to fit in the feeders to get stuck. I just let them walk all in it for the first while until they were too big to fit through the holes.

I had shavings from the beginning, so anything on their feet seemed to come right off once they got out.

They will get the hang of FF, but sprinkle some dry on top to get them to peck at it. Seems to help.

 

[CackedNut]

Glad you've got them settled in. Looking good!