First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JessicaThistle]

So glad that you are still here Lisa!! Glad that I am not alone in understanding the fire alarm chick screaming! All I could think while covering my ears is "honey please go faster"! It was painful.

The chicks got scrambled eggs mixed with plain yogurt today. The great thing about owning 800 chickens is that you have many eggs with which to scramble for the little ones! I am adding ACV to the water and cleaning and oiling butts daily to stop the pasty. Unfortunately, we are having warm days and freezing nights. This is not handy for the chicken momma wanting comfort for chicks continuously!! I may just have to keep the probiotics and butt cleaning going until we get some normal temps!

I will be delivering 48 dozen eggs on Monday and I figure that Wednesday delivery is going to be my biggest since I took over the egg biz...well over 200 dozen!!!

When I was at the chicken farm today, I had the most glorious observation! When I started taking care of these girls, most of their combs were pale and their eyes were dull. I have noticed more sparkly eyes over time, but today, I saw bright red combs and waddles!!!!!!!! Feathers are coming back in and red is returning to their combs!! I am so happy. They are all acting more spunky and chickeney!

Guess what else?? I got my first egg from the pullet pen!! Wahooooooo! These girls are roughly 20 weeks, looking healthy and super. First egg!!! There is 125 of them on rough count. Sweet hubby built their first nesting box which they will receive tomorrow (Monday)!!

Parts for chicken tractor #1 come this Thursday!! My husband hopes to bust out our first chicken tractor so we can move the first batch within 2 weeks. OMG, I am so happy, excited and scared at the same time!!

 

[duluthralphie]

WB Lisa.

Grats on the pullet egg, Jessica.


I learned a valuable lesson today. Bert has been outside or in an open air coop all winter with no frostbite to his comb. This morning he has frostbite on his comb and waddles, I am sure he will lose some. When I built the coop I listened to what other said about cold and made it too tight, even though I have open venting under the eaves, in the roof and gable ends, it is apparent I do not have enough.

I will be opening up the gable ends and screening them.

The coops I build this next year will be having way more ventilation. Maybe even open on the south side.

That said, I had a frozen egg already this morning. I wish this cold would end.

 

[mayble]

I thought, when I had my first round of meat birds (my husband wanted meat birds, I wanted nothing to do with it) that I could not go through with killing something I had cared for. Or killing anything more than a mosquito for that matter. But I found the delicate balance of caring and loving a creature that will one day grace your table... and how great it can be to truly give thanks for your meal.

Thank you! This, right here, is something that so many people don't seem to grasp.
I'm just beginning with chickens and some people I talk to are adamant that you can't eat an animal if you knew it personally. I like the idea of nourishing the animal that will nourish me. Circle of life and all that.
It's hard for me to even eat chicken or eggs these days after learning how factory-farms operate. In fact, it's the lack of local home-grown eggs that sent me on the chicken quest to begin with. When my co-worker stopped keeping hens and I couldn't find another source of eggs, I figured I may as well raise my own.

 

[duluthralphie]

Thank you! This, right here, is something that so many people don't seem to grasp.
I'm just beginning with chickens and some people I talk to are adamant that you can't eat an animal if you knew it personally. I like the idea of nourishing the animal that will nourish me. Circle of life and all that.
It's hard for me to even eat chicken or eggs these days after learning how factory-farms operate. In fact, it's the lack of local home-grown eggs that sent me on the chicken quest to begin with. When my co-worker stopped keeping hens and I couldn't find another source of eggs, I figured I may as well raise my own.

Welcome to the thread, and BYC....

We are all kind of softies on this thread, except for me. We make mistakes but we share them and try to never do them again. We sure all love our birds.

And whatever happens do not allow people to tell you Cornish crosses are lazy dirty birds. I only have Bert left of my CX's ( my avatar) but he is a super bird.

I know all my birds and processed most the CX's myself or with my DW's help. Raising your own food is such a good feeling.

Being able to sit and watch them while sipping on a Corona or Mike's Lemonade is when life doesn't get any better.

Vodka is required on "camp day". IT is an unwritten law.


BTW I know a "chicken factory " in Oregon where you can find the owner washing the chicks butts and rubbing olive oil on them to keep them soft and clean. So not all commercial eggs come from mistreated chickens.

 

[dpenning]

Welcome to the thread, and BYC....

*snip*

Vodka is required on "camp day". IT is an unwritten law.


BTW I know a "chicken factory " in Oregon where you can find the owner  washing the chicks butts and rubbing olive oil on them to keep them soft and clean. So not all commercial eggs  come from mistreated  chickens.   

 

[JessicaThistle]

Welcome to the thread, and BYC....

We are all kind of softies on this thread, except for me. We make mistakes but we share them and try to never do them again. We sure all love our birds.

And whatever happens do not allow people to tell you Cornish crosses are lazy dirty birds. I only have Bert left of my CX's ( my avatar) but he is a super bird.

I know all my birds and processed most the CX's myself or with my DW's help. Raising your own food is such a good feeling.

Being able to sit and watch them while sipping on a Corona or Mike's Lemonade is when life doesn't get any better.

Vodka is required on "camp day". IT is an unwritten law.


BTW I know a "chicken factory " in Oregon where you can find the owner washing the chicks butts and rubbing olive oil on them to keep them soft and clean. So not all commercial eggs come from mistreated chickens.

Hahaha! You so funny....and so correct!!

 

[duluthralphie]

Big day here!


Ole found the hole between the two halves of my coop partitions. It is way up on the peak of the roof, 1 guinea fowl found his way through about 2 months ago. I am shocked Ole found it. When I went to check on Ed and Ole tonight Ole was sitting on a "bench" with one guinea, Ole had no injuries and did not seem to be suffering so I let Ed in with the guineas too.


And more importantly, Bert is spending his first night with the other chickens. When I went to lock the coop, Bert was inside eating layer mash next to Ernie. They were not fighting so I left Bert in there to try out a real roost tonight.

I am a little nervous about this. The lowest roost is 2 ft or so off the ground, which is a long ways up for Bert. The other thing is the availability of food, Bert may not be able to control is urge to eat, and have to move into an area without free will feed.

 

[JessicaThistle]

I have had to block Sunny out of the main coop because of the auto feeder. Watch that closely Ralph!!

I also have two fun things to share:

My pullets at the farm have laid their first egg! My husband built a nesting box and took it to them today. He put it in their pen and within 3 minutes, a pullet figured it out!



AND the second is my hilarious story of the week!

On Sunday, my hubby went off to work and my daughter and I went off to the farm to collect eggs and take care of chickens. When we got home, I pulled into the driveway and looked through the sliding door to see the back door was open and one of my hens was standing in the doorway. No big deal as this was not a first. The door doesn't latch unless you slam it and 9 times out of 10 the kids don't. Therefore, if the dog is outside he just pushes it open and comes in.

Next is the crazy part....we go in the sliding door and hear a crow. My daughter says "is that crowing coming from the living room"? Upon further investigation there are no chickens in the living room BUT when going down the hall, I see my proud rooster, Chip, standing on the bathroom counter crowing of course. When I moved further down the hallway toward my bedroom, I saw my other rooster, Gidget and a pullet. I laughed thinking that was it, right? Wrong! When I went into bedroom there were too more hens in there! We grabbed them up and took them out, but my dear pullet had to jump up and take a big crap on my bed first. UGH!

If you see under my avatar up there it says "Overrun with chickens". Yeah! Because the dog opened the door today and 6 chickens ran in as if they were waiting for that door to open. It's a real good thing that I love these guys and don't have fancy stuff that I would be concerned with chickens coming in.

I think I'm CRAZY!

 

[Turkeytruff]

Mountain Mom: Thank you for the nice words. The difference is that I actually really like chickens!

You know how some people have animals but they are indifferent to them? Sometimes they have a dog but they tie it up outside all of the time; or they have chickens but they think they are stupid and don't enjoy them but like the eggs; they have a cow but only want the milk and ignore the cow the rest of the time? So in the mean time, the animal doesn't get the care they need but the person gets the prize they want.

I have seen this indifference to the animal by some farmers and even on farming youtube videos. I actually care and want my animals to have the best life possible. The prize (eggs, milk, etc) are a gift in my opinion and I don't deserve that gift if I neglect them.

I know that sounds all granola-y or something but I was raised to respect animals. I know that I will have to write off some loss as inevitable but I also want to do everything in my power to make that number as low as possible. I guess if that means that I clean 50 fluffy butts each day until their bodies adjust, than that is what I must do.

Awesome job you're doing, Jessica! I can just see you cleaning all those poopy butts! So wonderful to hear that your chickens will be so well looked after
I have 5 12 day old MG chicks in one box and just hatched out 4/5 (eggs still being chipped away at tonight) BCMs in another box. So I changed the Ecoglow from the big boys box and put in a Sunbeam heater wrapped in wire, padding and then plastic bag - it was a sunny afternoon so I had them outside in the sun in a cage for a while. When I put them back in tonight the fire alarm calls were phenomenal. They shrieked and shrieked at this strange new warm mommy in the corner. After about 15 minutes the biggest, boldest one ended up jumping up on top of it and pecked the heat settings to turn it off- little begger! They are hilarious. Such fun to watch them grow and spread their wings.

 

[duluthralphie]

I am guessing Bert had a bad night. When I came out this morning he was in the corner under the nest boxes with his head as far in the corner as it would go. There was a small EE pullet pecking at his butt. He lost quite a few feathers off his........Well, you know.......

I pulled him out form the corner and herded him towards the human door. When he got into the feed area he ran into a 5 gallon bucket head first. I had to pull him out of that. When I got him outside another pullet bit his butt. I chased her away. Then JJ grabbed the pullet by the back of the neck. Bert walked around but chickens kept coming up to him to peck his butt feathers. Even a turkey did the same thing. Bert ate a little but is so shy now as soon as another bird gets close he walks away.

I put Bert back in the feed area for the day. I am not sure what I am going to do with him. I wish I had a small area for him and a couple pullets to live. I am thinking of using my ICU (dog cage) 3x4 ft for Bert and a Hen or two the live in. Maybe try and knock the tractor free an put along side it for them.

I wish I knew someone who had CX pullets close by, I would let them have Bert. He is so sweet and mellow he has a hard time in the chicken world. Maybe I will have to bring him into the basement for a few weeks, which would mean I would be sleeping in the basement too.... what to do......what to do?

I need more covered runs and small coops!