Welcome Babies

April 2, 2020 was a fun day on the little farm. We welcomed 41 meat birds for the first time. This has been a dream for 2 years, so today is bitter sweet.

It has been a lot of learning as we truck along even though we asked question upon question. How do we keep baby chicks? How and when do we transition them to the coop? Do they eat ALL the time? Better to limit food?

Remember, we raised egg layers but that was 8 vs 41 and meat birds grow at a much rapid pace then layers therefore require an enormous amount of water and food. We chose 41 meat birds because we, again, are expecting some to die and we are raising a couple for the in-laws.

Week 1 – Day 1

Before my husband came home with all the chick babies, we had gotten this old water bin from the neighbor. It was perfect! We washed it and got it all prepared. Filled it with wood chips, got food and water stations ready and got heat lamps hung so it was warm for them.

Since the chicks are so little we didn’t want to have to clean out the whole bin every few days so we added a tote in the middle as a divider. And I’ll list the reasons this worked out so well!

• Kept the chickens closer together to provide warmth.
• Easy cleaning.
• Tote provide security.

To clean the bin out, I would move the food, water and lamp to the other end. This side already had clean wood chips. Then I would lift the tote that was in the middle of the bin and the chicks would run to the other side. Once all were over, I would place the bin back down and clean out the dirty side. Once the dirty wood chips were scooped out, we would put down clean wood chips, so it was ready to go a few days later. This was ideal and super easy. We went from cleaning every 2-3 days to every day within a week!

Growing babies weeks 1-2

Over time we would move the tote back further in the bin giving the chickens a little more room every week. Eventually we had to get rid of the tote. They loved the extra room and it is important to let them walk around to keep their legs strong. We started hanging their food and water to also help build strength in their legs. Since meat birds are so heavy its especially important that they stand to eat and that water and food aren’t placed right next to each other. Spacing them out makes them walk.

Weeks 2-3

These birds grow SO FAST! They were almost triple their size by 2-3 weeks old. The tote was out of the water bin by the end of week 2-2.5. We are cleaning it daily, watering them every 12 hours and feeding them about every 12 hours as well.

They are also getting their feathers in and poor things look so ugly and cold. Since we have the tote out of the middle we added a second heat lamp on the other side of the bin so they could stay toasty.

Week 4

April 23, the chicks are 3 weeks old to us. We have lost 3 already, not sure why.

Today I am putting them in their coop the first time. The days have been sunny and warm. The nights are warmer now too which is something I had to keep in mind when transitioning them. I also made sure they had most of their feathers or close to it. We did put a heat lamp out in the coop incase the temp drops at night as it tends to in Northern Minnesota.

We love having these little birds to take care of. Hard to believe that in 4-6 weeks they will be ready to butcher.

So there you have it. Weeks 1-4 and what it has looked like for us so far. I will keep updating this as the weeks go by. I am hoping to get one more post written this week. I’m thinking on some toxic free dryer balls?!