chicks
Do you hear what I hear?
Sshh......It's coming from around side of the barn....
Maisie knows what it is!
It's the sound of spring!
Today we are celebrating the arrival of the first chicks for 2009!
I have been so bad about updating my blog. I know that I need to set time aside a couple days a week to keep readers in touch with Bear Creek Acres. I am really trying to turn over a new leaf!
Really!
Ages ago, I said I would explain chicken tractors.
Better late than never my Mom always said!
We raise our meat chickens out in the fresh air and sunshine. They are able to forage for fresh grass sprouts and other tasty items. They also are fed an all natural (no antibiotics, no hormones, and no animal by-products) chicken feed and lots of fresh water.
Raising a bunch of chickens produces a bunch of manure, and in conventional (supermarket) chicken houses the chickens live in an enclosed building with no access ( or nearly impossible access ) to the outdoors. I’m told they never feel a breeze nor see the sun nor eat a blade of grass.
It is certainly easier to raise chickens in confinement. There is no danger of a huge rainstorm drowning the chickens, the producer can control the heat, and there is no danger of a predator killing all their birds.
But that’s not how we want to raise animals,
and that’s not what we want to eat.
So, we raise our chickens out on pasture and have small portable huts called chicken tractors for their shelter.
We start the little chicks in our tiny brooder house. Once they get too big for it and the weather is accommodating they get moved into the tractor.
There are lots of designs for chicken tractors. We read about them in books and online - and then Shannon, my husband, decided what would work for us. Shannon and our son, Jack, have built 3 - with slight modifications each time. There is always room for improvements. Some farmers have an enclosed outdoor run connected to their huts that the chickens have access to, and they move it to clean grass regularly.
For now, since we have had no trouble with predators, we allow the birds to free range. Until recently we had no predator problems. Right now we are leaving the dogs outside to work the midnight shift and keep the fox or whatever it is scared off. We’ll see if this works out.
The birds still free range all day, but they have guardians at night. It seems to be helping.
Each morning we go out and open the door to the hut and out pour the chickens! They love being outside. When they have all run out, we (it only takes one person since our tractors are nice and light) drag it ahead 12 feet to clean ground, move their feeders and waters up as well and prop open the door to the hut. During the day we make sure that the feed is flowing properly in the feeder and refill their water as necessary. In the evening we herd any chickens that haven’t already tucked themselves into bed and shut their door. Depending on the weather and the forecast we adjust the tarp that covers their hut to either keep them warm, or cool, or dry.
Since this is such a healthy way for the chickens to live - no competition for food or space and they are living in such clean surroundings - they don’t need to eat medicated food like conventional chickens.
When planned properly, the chicken tractor system can eliminate the need to spread petroleum-based fertilizer on hay fields along with cost and effort to spread fertilizer or manure with a tractor! The chickens can fertilize a farmer’s hay field for them by naturally spreading their own manure as they move across the field with their chicken shelters.
No, the stork doesn’t bring baby chicks to farms, and they aren’t found under cabbage leaves. The United State Postal Service gets them to us safe and sound. These chicks came all the way from Iowa in just one day in these big boxes. There are 300 chicks snuggled in here all toasty warm and safe. I think it’s a heck of a deal that these little darlings can get mailed all that way to us for just under $20.
When Maisie sees and hears -they make a heckuva racket peep, peep, peeping away! - the new chicks come, she gets so very excited. For some reason, she just loves them. She checks them out very carefully and will sleep by their brooder house, too. She never shows any aggression towards them.
We put them in our little brooder house and give them each a drink as they go into their new home. They are kept out of drafts, and under hear lamps while they are still so tender.
They will get full feed for the first few days, after which we must make sure to remove their feed at night. If we don’t they will grow too fast and have heart attacks.
After they have grown their feathers, and if the weather is accommodating, we’ll put them into the chicken tractors so they can be out in the fresh air and green grass. But for now they need a lot of coddling. "What's a chicken tractor?" you ask? I hope to do a blog entry on them soon.
In 8 or 9 weeks they will look like plain old big, white chickens, not nearly so cute, and will be ready to butcher. But for now....they are fuzzy and cute, aren’t they?
I was dressed and waiting for the phone to ring this morning at 7AM. Today is Baby Chick Day. This is a red letter day for us. Weeks ago we ordered a batch of baby ckicks from Welp’s in Iowa. They tell us what day the chicks will be hatched and shipped. The first thing in the morning the day after they are shipped, they get to our post office in Embarrass. Our postmaster calls as soon as the mail arrives, and then I hop in the van to go get them. It still amazes me that they are able to mail baby chickens – but it works great. They all arrived safe and sound without a single loss. I thought it interesting that they are able to overnight 150 baby chicks for $14.00 in shipping. That seems like a bargain when you think about it. I sure wish I hadn’t dropped the camera 2 weeks ago because these little creatures would make a dandy photo.
Baby chick day is a sure sign of Spring for us. I was more than a little concerned about the weather this year since less than 2 weeks ago we had a major snow storm with over 2 feet of snow. To add insult to injury we got many more inches just a few days later. But - hooray!- the weather took a turn for the better, and the snow is leaving almost as suddenly as it came. The robins are back, the pussy willows are blooming, the creek is rising (oooo...that's a whole 'nother story), and Baby Chick Day is here!
The day before the chicks are expected the brooder needs to be prepared. Normally, this is my job, but I am still out of commission with a broken arm so Shannon took over. The waters and feeders need to be brought out of the barn for a thorough scrubbing. They get awfully dirty over the winter. They need to be filled as well, of course. Straw is laid in the bottom of the little building with flip up roof sides that we use for a brooder. Bulbs are checked in the heat lamps, the lamps are lowered as far down as possible this time of year, and electrical cords are strung out. Those baby chicks need to be kept very warm until they feather out. April in Northern Minnesota is a challenging time for the little buggers. Yesterday morning it was in the mid 40s when the kids got on the bus, but today is was in the mid 20s. We have to watch them carefully to make sure they stay warm and dry. When it warms up, we need to crack the roof so they don’t overheat…but there is no danger of that today.
I’ll post pictures when my camera is back from the repair shop.