Before and After

Monday was B-Day for the meaties, as in "Butcher Day."

Before

After

Very after (well, six of them)

Thirteen chickens total, average dressed weight of 7 lbs. I haven't had a chance to try one yet but my coworkers who have say they are very tender and juicy.

I'm contemplating the next round already, but it won't be until fall at the earliest.

Operation MiniCoop

Not to be confused with Mini Cooper.

The pullets have outgrown their brooders. I phased out the heat lamp about a week ago. They are big enough to knock over their waterer on a daily basis, and their chick feeders are getting filled up daily with litter. The last straw was yesterday's escape when I didn't tighten down the top netting well enough.

The problem is that for various reasons they are not ready/able to be moved into their permanent adult housing at this time. Among the pullets are thirteen birds I'm starting for other people. One, like me, doesn't have her full coop set up yet. The other has a bunch of older birds so these would have to remain separated for a few more months.

I have a pretty big horse barn, which includes one stall I've already converted to a coop for the meat birds. The logical thing would be to convert another stall to a coop, but I don't need anything quite that large. The solution - convert part of a stall to a sturdier chicken coop. I was planning on having something more storm-ready than a chicken tractor for my laying hens anyway.

Hence the MiniCoop!

First step was critter-proofing the stall windows with chicken wire.

Then I needed to build the fourth wall.

Stand it up and attach more chicken wire. Put in a roof. Build a door.

Periodically stop to wash various cuts and wounds on my hands and apply antibiotic ointment. (I'll spare you that image).

Put down bedding, hang the feeder, place the waterer, and move in the birds!

The only thing missing is a roost system. For now I've moved over the cinder block perches from the brooders.

They're too busy exploring and scratching to notice. But I did have two fly from one end to the other. Finally enough room to spread their wings!

And this morning they were pecking the wall separating them from the meaties. I wonder if chickens know Morse Code.

Perch training

I think they are getting the hang of it.

Unfortunately, the pullets are also outgrowing their brooder. The other one is just as crowded. And messy. And dirty. Think about putting a group of toddlers in a walk-in closet and throwing them fresh food every few hours. Yeah, not pretty.

Time to move up to a new coop. I had the lumber delivered today. There's an empty stall on the east side of the barn. Should give them plenty of room to test their flight skills. in an enclosed space. I can already hear the theme song of the next adventure...

"Well we're movin on up, to the East Side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up to the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie."

 Name that show.

Yum

Four weeks old. Another three weeks to harvest. Just under five pounds each.

Is it wrong that I'm sizing them up to see if they are big enough to stick a beer can up their bum and put them on the grill?

Management Training

Or training management? Not sure which.

Chickies are growing by leaps and bounds. The 'meaties' moved on to their new home last week. And I have already had to expand their space. And add a feeder. And put the waterer up on a higher block. And raise both of the feeders.

And then there are the pullets, or the "peep-a-ronis" as my coworker calls them. Also growing and almost out of space in their brooder. Keep in mind there are 18 of them.

And they are started to perch on everything, which means waterers and feeders covered in chicken sh#t. So after disinfecting the meaties' old brooder the amicable split was on. Well, almost amicable, seems one of my peeps was strongly attached to one of my friend's peeps and because I split them up based on ownership and destination I had a couple of peeping-criers unhappy about the new arrangements.

10 pullets, bigger tank

8 pullets, slightly smaller tanks

And now I know which ones are the perchers (the bigger tank) and the scratchers (the smaller tank).

You would think that given their propensity for sitting on the feeder and waterer and crapping all over both that they would take quickly to life on a perch. Nope.

This lasts for about two minutes, and then just when you think they have preened enough and are ready to call it a night they plop back down into the shavings and go stand on the feeder again.

Another half hour of hand-placing birdies on the bricks or perch followed by curious exploration and a return to the ground.

I'm beginning to sense the origin of the phrase "bird-brained idea."

Moving out

In my batch of chicks are 16 Jumbo Cornish x Rocks. These are a crossbred developed specifically for fast growth and meat production.

Arrival day, three days old

Nine days old (and more than doubled in size)

Eleven days

Thirteen days

Quickly outgrowing the brooder! I had to move them up to the next feeder to keep up with their appetites! Actually, I had an ulterior motive on that - moving day was right around the corner and I wanted them to have something familiar when they headed off to new digs.

Fourteen days old - new apartment!

Back in Business

Or, What the Heck Am I Thinking?

About three years ago I swore off chickens.

And then on Wednesday these guys arrived:

Thirty-four chicks. THIRTY-FOUR.

Not all of them are mine. Just 19.

What the heck was I thinking?!?