The adventure begins

[SunnySkies]

That was us a couple weeks ago. Lots and lots of rain. It was so chilly one night I closed the windows. We could still use the hot tub and it felt nice. Not so much now. Nutty weather for sure.

I'm considering moving these guys outside during the day and bringing them in at night, except they are all wild buggers and getting big and fast, which would likely make catching them stressful for everyone involved. They might be big enough to go outside next week.

We are almost halfway through the first bag of feed, so I think the first bag will last about 2 weeks; I am feeding free choice right now. My kids spilled a decent amount outside the other day, feeding some other chickens (after they were told this bag is for the meat birds only), and I'm not liking how fine this feed is anyway...they won't eat it after they pick out the bigger chunks, so I'm wasting more feed than perhaps I would like. I am looking at feeds to change them to. One local place carries a 26% protein feed, which I think is way too high.

 

[SunnySkies]

If CX poop more than this, I never want to raise them. Yuck.

ETA: I have been in many commercial houses, but I never paid attention to the amount of poop (I was mainly looking at sick birds or planning a depop while wearing a full hazmat suit) but it is a whole 'nother ball game when it's your garage they are pooping in! LOL

 

[SunnySkies]

Oh eek, these guys look so stressed by the heat. I have them under two fans at this point. Stretched a lot of deer fencing across the front of the garage to keep out stray roosters and mean ducks but allow air flow through for the day (it will be shut at night to keep out predators). Added ice to their waterer. Hope it is enough.

 

[AgroUrica]

If CX poop more than this, I never want to raise them. Yuck.

ETA: I have been in many commercial houses, but I never paid attention to the amount of poop (I was mainly looking at sick birds or planning a depop while wearing a full hazmat suit) but it is a whole 'nother ball game when it's your garage they are pooping in! LOL

They are eating, drinking, pooping machines.

 

[SunnySkies]

They are eating, drinking, pooping machines.

LOL! Truth there, friend! Nobody died today from heat, but it's going to be even hotter tomorrow. But in happy news, much cooler next week...and they are going outside for good then.

 

[SunnySkies]

The brats are jumping out of the brooder ring and are now pooping all over the garage. Have to rig up a mesh top for the ring while we wrap up their pen, which has to be predator proof...had something prowling around last night.

Somehow we didn't lose one in that heat wave.

 

[AgroUrica]

How old are they now?

 

[SunnySkies]

11 days. Well old enough to be outside in our heat and humidity. They are solid. I picked one up today and was surprised that they weigh more than some other babies I hatched from my flock that are probably 7-8 days older. They don't look that much bigger overall but they're gaining nicely A couple are much bigger and a couple are a little small, but overall, they look good. Looking forward to some nice dinners.

We had dinner at a friend's house this evening, and they were kind of all "why are you raising your own meat when you can buy it for 99 cents a pound at the store?" Well,not if I want humanely raised and processed, free range, somewhat organic (organic feed is not readily available at any sort of reasonable expense in my area) chicken. If I want that, I'm looking at $8-10/lb here. The last farm-raised chicken I bought, which was not free range or any sort of organic, was $25-26 for a 4.75-5 lb bird.

They also thought it must be a lot of work. Well, it was more work than usual to keep them cool during the heat, but once they go out, it won't be too bad. Move the coop with the pickup truck as needed, check the feeder and waterer a few times a day. Monitor health and for predators (trap is out tonight). Processing is work, but we have a team lined up already with at least 6 people, with perhaps 2-5 more willing to come help. One of them owns an auto plucker

Still on the first bag of feed. Feed store run will be Thursday. Should be about $19 for a bag of feed.

Anticipating the coop will end up costing about $150, with most of that hardware cloth, an absolute necessity here. I didn't have enough of that laying about in the garage. If I add an electric wire, that will be $88 for a battery powered system, as the coop is located in a pasture with no hard-wired electricity. Thinking about knocking together a processing table like I saw in an article of Mother Earth News, which would require purchase of a PVC pipe.

 

[SunnySkies]

Every time I go out to work on their coop, the smallest child needs me. Or I can't find the husband's drill (my personal impact driver doesn't like doing some of the things I need to do). Or the key for the drill. Or some other stupid thing. So, it still isn't done. Hubby is out of town all week too. I want them out! In desperation, I'm working on repurposing a trampoline, as I can do that with nothing more than zip ties and wire cutters...if the kid would be content to hang out with his brothers for a bit.

HUGE and aggressive coon on my deck at 4 this morning. It is ignoring the trap. So I have to ensure this coop is Fort Knox...the beast tried and failed to enter two coops two nights ago.

 

[SunnySkies]

One out of the whole lot has coccidiosis. Ruffled feathers, bloody stools, anorexia, the whole nine yards. They were on amprolium-laced food until this Momday. UGH. This bird is in a hospital cage getting a dose of Corid in water via syringe 2-4 times a day, medicated feed and hoping for the best. But knowing everybody probably has subclinical coccidiosis, I am going to add Corid to everybody's water for 5-7 days and go back to medicated feed, just need to go to the feedstore,

The rest look good. There are some obvious disparate sizes here, and the color patterns are....interesting....but the look to be growing fast and have exceeded the size of the chicks running with them that are some weeks older, an EE cross and a bantam Cochin. I stuck a year old bantam Cochin hen in there too; she was blinded in one eye by a racoon attack and needed some stimulation to encourage her to survive. The punks got her eating, and I see her thumping them every so often.