Pastured Poultry - (birds arrive!)

Okay so I decided to take the plunge and I order a few birds to try this pastured poultry thing...  One of our barns was set up for dog breeding and has five small rooms where the puppies would be kept.  The rooms are about 6x7 and are ideal for our chick brooder.  I can't actually take credit for it...It was Sweet Thangs idea.  Our day old chicks will spend the first 3 weeks of their lives in here until we move them to the pasture.

The brooder must be at least 25 sqft for 100 chicks.  Yeah, I'm experimenting with 100 chicks.  I hope they all make it to slaughter day.  It is important that the brooder is protected from all predators to include rats and have an absorbent bedding.  I had originally put cedar shavings down until I read that the cedar oils and smells could be harmful to the young chicks.  After further research I found that pine shavings were the better choice.  You want to use shavings and not saw dust or chips.  Dust is too fine causing the chicks to have digestive problems.  Chips are too large and won't absorb the waste.

Sweet Thang... looking beautiful as ever (loving the yellow boots...Those are working for me!)  Okay, focus... the bedding here is 6" deep and Sweet Thang has put some newspaper down and sprinkled some grit and (non medicated) chick starter.  The paper allows the day old chicks to get quick access to food and grinding stones.

She's so hot literally... We turned the heat on the whole way back from the post office to insure our chicks stayed at 90 degrees.  I'm thinking that we may need a more farm like dog...

Part of the tribe looking over our new arrivals.  (oldest far left is Cowgirl, youngest boy in Cowgirl's arm is Tumbleweed, our 3rd oldest girl in the middle is Pony Tail, and on the far right is Boots.)  Our middle girl Dixie Girl is not present in this photo because she is busy taking pictures right next to me at the moment.

Our youngest Tumbleweed is a bit timid.

Counting the chicks

106 chicks minus 2 dead in the crate we are at 104...  What's your guess?  How many will make it to slaughter day in 8 weeks?

 From our farm, to your table...  Coming Soon :)

Did you say chickens?

I plop down on the couch and run my hands down my face feeling the fatigue set in from rising at 5:00 a.m.  I quickly notice the difference in my hands as they rub like sand paper against my face.  I feel a bit proud of it thinking back to how soft they were just a few short weeks ago.

Sweet Thang peeks out the primed front door and flips on the porch light as a flash of lightning brightens the sky, "I hope the other cat doesn't get taken tonight.  I'm sad for the girls."  I glance up to her and give a half smile trying to figure out what could have happened to the black and white kitten the girls call Miss Kitty.  Could it have been coyotes or maybe it climbed up in Aunt T's car.  Maybe I should give her a call.

Nothing like an ice cold glass of milk to think over my day.  Sweet Thang just announced she's heading off to bed.  My mind quickly switches on how to get my brooder built so I can order my first batch of chicks.  hmmm... should I start with 50 or 100?  Cornish?

It shouldn't be too difficult to market pastured poultry after reading about what a supermarket chicken goes through.  That's my angle... Get people to see the sad shape that their store bought chickens are in and  our chickens sell themselves. 

Think about it!  Who wants to eat a chicken that has been confined with thousands of other birds.  Given tons of medication like antibiotics, growth hormones, and arsenic to increase their appetite.  Yummy, Yummy meat toxins!  Feathers, eyes, beaks, nostrils - nothing is exempt from the layers of fecal dust stirred up in their tiny confinements.  Not only do they live in fecal dust but that fecal dust gets in their feed, water and lungs.  This filth is why the birds receive as many as 40 chlorine baths.  Yeah, that's right your chicken you buy at the store has been medicated, poisoned, and bathed in chlorine 40 times.  I wonder how much of that makes it into the meat?  Kind of like a good marinade, on steroids...literally!

The chicken processing is even worse.  I won't go into the gruesome details but lets just say the chicken is in filth from start to finish...  I think if most people knew what they were eating they wouldn't give it to their dogs.

But there is another option...  Fresh raised pastured poultry...  I'm reading a great book by Joel Salatin on how to begin a pastured poultry farm.  This guy lays bare his entire system.  I love systems.  Not only that but his model removes all medications, poisons , allows the birds to do what they do naturally (forage) in open space. 

Next time "You are what you eat"  learn about what your chicken eats and why pastured poultry is healthier for you. 

"You going to be much longer?" calls a voice from the bed.  "I'm on my way."  I yell back.

Good Night!