So.....you can probably tell by the title of the post that this is being written by Ben. I have been planning on raising a few Cornish Rock Cross chickens for meat ever since I ate my first one I raised last summer. I only raised 4 last year, and they have been incredibly delicious. We just cooked up the last two this past weekend for my birthday dinner. After my brother Jeremy and his wife Katie watched Food Inc, they have wanted to find a way to get better food, preferably something home grown. After some initial research, I decided that we needed to help our family and raise some broilers for everyone. An idea that began as a few chickens mixed in with our laying hens in the chicken coop quickly grew into a total conversion of the outdoor shed to fill in beyond capacity with broilers. I figured up the projected expenses per bird, and ordered the chicks as soon as I could. Well, the day has arrived, and we have 49 little peepers in the corner of our garage under the heat lamp. Kattie was kind enough to go early this morning and pick them up because I was already at work. There was one that looked very sick already, so the mill gave us an extra one. Sure enough, the little guy died, just a few hours after getting him home. Then, a few hours later, another one died. So, we are now down to 49. But, all the remaining chicks look quite healthy. We will definitely keep you all up to date. If any of you would like to come out and see the chicks, you are welcome anytime. However, they will double in size each week for the first few weeks, so come quickly while they are still cute. They will soon lose their fuzz and get kinda ugly. Just a little fact that I found to be amazing; this breed of chickens over the course of 12 weeks will gain 1 pound for every 2 pounds of feed they eat. That is incredible feed conversion. Ok, that's enough for now. Here are the pictures at day 1.
Aww...I remember getting chicks and how sweet and fuzzy they are at first, so warm under their heat lamps. I love farm/rural life, and if I could, I would have chickens and some goats and rabbits and a couple of horses! And I would do square-foot gardening, too. I would have some fruit trees and grape vines and a fishing pond (or live near the water). I love fishing! And it would be managed so one thing helped another, for as much natural food as possible. I would also store and plant some seeds of vegs you could propagate from their own seeds. I would have compost and worms and a plow and harness and underground storage, like a buried refrigerator or cellar.
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thank you for the invite. That's so nice of you, and you have such a great little place. I love seeing you make it into what you want.
Btw, I told Kattie that we used to have to put medicine in the chick's water to prevent diseases like coccidiosis. I don't know if that would apply to your situation, but for whatever it's worth...
The boys will love your chicks!
They're cute! I can't wait to take Hunter to see them! And we hope someday we can taste how good they are, maybe I can convince Dallin to have baby chicks in North Dakota!
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