More Meat in the Fridge

The six Cornish Cross chickens have been processed.  We had two roos and four pullets (two male and four female). Collectively, we ended up with 45 pounds of chicken after processing. So that's pretty good.  We spent about $90 on feed, but factor in that they also pastured. No antibiotics, no chemicals, no hormones. We have our winter chicken meat "resting" in a refrigerator for a few days, then they will be frozen for use over the winter months. We still have a 10 pounder left over from last spring. The plan is to roast him this weekend. In some ways, it is a lot of work, but for the assurance of what we are going to eat, it feels about right. 

The HoopPen attached to the HoopCoop Update

The sun is out, albeit, brisk. Temps are not getting above mid-60s this weekend. However, the chicks are enjoying the fresh air, and the sun through the door.  On occasion, one or two will pop out into the grass to look for bugs and worms, but mostly like being inside where there's heat radiating from overhead. While we have placed food and water in the pen, we will also keep it inside the hoop coop unless they start getting so fat, that they can't walk.  We don't want them THAT fat!

The heavy water-proof canvas tarps along with the down-filled comforter laying in between, is doing the trick to keep the warmth inside at night. That's our solution for now, until we can come up with something better for next year. 

Next weekend will be the extra lighting set up in the other coops, since we are barely getting 13 hours of sun per day. To keep the layers producing a little better, we need at least 13 hours of sun/light. We set up the lights inside the coops to come on at 4 am for the layers and that way, all fall, winter and spring, they are getting a minimum of 13 hours of light and sun to help with egg production. Additionally, we will take off the sun cloth from the pens, so that any sun that does peek out from the clouds, helps to promote a little extra warmth, and lots of vitamin D. 

We always try to use clear plastic on the pens as rain guards covering over 75% of the pens, but at the same time, there's a gap for ventilation purposes on each side.  We do cover one or both sides of the pens, when there's a strong wind or snow for a little extra protection.

I recognize that some people think we go a bit overboard with protecting our chickens, but the reality, as we have learned, is that the extra protection reduces the stress level for the chickens, and we don't need to feed them any medicated food in order for them to be good egg and meat producers. The layers produce good eggs almost all year long, they don't pick/peck on each other, they forage like "real chickens" are intended to do, and they are not bored because we move their paddocks regularly to fresh grass. We don't pamper them; we do treat them humanely without turning them into pets.

Close up of Hoop Pen	Hoop Coop and Pen is Set up
Cornish X Sunbathing	The goofy Hoop Coop and Hoop Pen
New Welsummer Doing the Sunshine Lean

Hoping we don't have Chick-sicles in the Morning

Today, the cornish cross went outside into the hoop-coop.  It's cooooold tonight, so hopefully they will stay warm enough.  We started with the 50 watt infrared light, but it was barely warming the coop, so we went to the 75 watt.  I just checked on them. It's 45F outside right now, but they are moving around in the coop and not all huddled together, so that's a good sign. We have never tried the fall season for new chicks before, so this is all new territory.  These guys are four weeks old, and have most of their feathers.  Have my fingers crossed that this is going to work.

Update: October 10, 2017
The temps inside the coop dropped pretty low Monday morning, down into the mid 40s(F) and the birds were a bit lethargic Monday morning at 7:30.  Monday  night, we placed a heavy bed comforter and another canvas tarp over the coop. That kept the temps inside the coop about 12 degrees warmer all night. This morning, at 7:30, the temp was 52 inside the coop. We may want to add a blue plastic tarp if it rains tonight, to protect the comforter from getting wet. The chicks were more active and alert this morning, so that's a good sign!

The photos below are from Tuesday morning.  I know it is a goofy look, but, at least it helps to keep the warmth inside the coop.  This coop was originally designed to house two heritage sized turkeys, from spring to fall, so, yah, it is what it is.  To determine the approximate inside temp, we are using a digital terrarium thermometer, with the  readout taped under the flap on the outside of the coop, and the gauge hanging inside, near the middle of the coop, where the chicks can't peck at it.  Plus, in addition to the heat lamp that we have hanging in the coop (a safe distance from the ceiling, and from the birds), we have a 50W LED light on a timer that comes on 12 hours per day to help with the night vs. day situation since the door light, especially on cloudy days, is not enough light for the chicks' circadian cycle.

The chicks are only four weeks old, so they really are not quite ready to deal with the outside temps yet. But they grow quickly into stinky pooping machines, and we could not handle the smell wafting through the garage any longer.

Oh, yah, the white board to the side is the "door cover" to help with a sense of security for the birds at night. The coyotes and raccoons will look through the plexiglass at night, and it scares the birds to see these predators leering at them.  We fasten the board over the plexiglass to impede the view at night.  The coyotes were very active last night in the area, and I had to go check on the birds several times for that, in addition to the cool temps.

The Chip Flickers

The cornish cross are three weeks old now.  The six of them, collectively are drinking more than a quart of water per day, so we are using our larger, three quart waterer.  The base is so large that we have to put it on a small wagon tire to keep the water clean (free of pooh and wood shavings). After a week or two, chicks have a tendency to dig through the savings, looking for things on the "ground" and it's a form of chip flicking that ends up sending those shavings everywhere, including into their feeder, as you can see in the photos below. There's feed under all those shavings, and they will get to it, but we have to dig threw the feeder before throwing a whole batch out and adding fresh feed every day. Normal (heritage) chicks do not eat and drink this much at this age. In about a week, we will start restricting the amount of feed, or they will over eat to the point of not being able to walk.

One of the chicks had a black spot on his/her tail end... now it has black on its wings. So, I guess we will always be able to tell that one, from the others.

All Six Chicks @ 3 wks	Looks Like They Eat Shavings!
Have you heard the one about two chicks walking into the bar?	So what is this stuff, anyways?

One Week Cornish Cross

Last week, we picked up six little peeps for the second meat growing season for the PacNW. In our garage, I set up a short version of the small outdoor run that I have for young pullets that I use in the springtime for transition from indoors to outdoors. The run comes in two sections that hook together for about a five foot run. So the chicks are in one half of the pen in my hope to minimize having to move them from one pen to the next since they grow so quickly.  I have cardboard on the cement floor to minimize the coldness from the ground. I have an old sheet for the "floor" of the pen to help keep in the wood shavings.  I always use aspen since the odor is less intense with it. 

I have the brooder warmer's height at its highest level with an old folded up sheet for them to sleep on at night.  That way I can wash the sheet every couple of days since that area contains the largest concentration of POOH in the pen.  I have poster board all around the sides (outsides) to help keep heat in, and drafts out. At night, I cover the top of the pen with a large sheet and have a space heater just outside the pen that pushes warm air into the pen between two of the poster boards to help it stay nice and warm while they sleep.  Today, they were congregated in front of the heater rather than snuggling under the brooder.  This is a good indication that the area is warm enough for them that they are not all bunched up but not all sprawled out at the opposite end of the pen trying to get away from the heat.  

We picked up the chicks on Wednesday so they are almost a week old (Monday-ish). Their little white feathers are already starting to grow.  We have everything set up for the move outside in a few weeks. 

The older Welsummers are moulting as of this week.  We took the oyster shell out of their pen and will switch them over to a higher protein diet as they shed their feathers.  I was actually hoping to sell them off this weekend, but, alas, I waited a week too long. I won't sell them during the moult since that would be just toooooo stressful on them.  It has been bad enough on them with the smoke from the out-of-control fires just a few miles north east of us for the past two weeks.  Today, it started raining! This should help to contain the wild fire.

Six Little Chickies - One Week Old
No Worries!	This is What we Do!
Yesterday - Smoke at Sunset

Welsummers Laying @ 22

We approached the egg laying situation different this time, with our Welsummer pullets. Our first flock of Welsummers took at least 23 weeks for the first to start laying.  And they were awkward, constantly breaking their eggs or flipping them out of the nest.  I think the last of the three layers finally started laying about 26 weeks in.

This time, I kept the nesting area boarded up until they were 20 weeks. Then when I opened it up, I put a lot of soft grass hay along with a fake ceramic brown egg in the box.  On August 13, we got our first egg. We've been getting an egg each day, so I assume that we have at least two laying eggs.  We will give it a month before we start providing oyster shell, to ensure that all the gals are laying.  We don't want to cause any kidney damage to any of the ones who may not yet be laying. 

The eggs are about half the size of the older Welsummers.  A little misshapen, but they look fine on the inside.

The Big and the Not Quite as Big

The Cornish Cross are basically two different sizes.  I have to assume that the larger ones are the males, but that's only a speculation.  When they are side by side, it's quite obvious that there are two very different sizes. They spend most of their days outside now.  Not a lot of movement going on.

Late Evening Sun Bathing

Looking for a better spot in the sun.

The size differences at the same age.