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Cheep, Cheep, Cheep

April 30th, 2013

That’s what we hear on our back porch right now. On Sunday evening, we picked up 17 chicks from our neighbor who incubated them. They’re a mix of Delwares and barnyard mixes from his other layers. These birds are mostly being raised to be broilers, but some of the females may be kept as part of our laying flock.
chicks 1
How’s that for a bucket of chicken?
chicks 2
chicks 3
My seedling heating mat comes in handy when it comes to brooding tiny animals, if you put it under the brooder it helps keep the floor warm for them.
chicks (1)
I love how they dart around and then the next second they’re passed out sleeping on the floor. They’re entertaining to watch.
chicks 4
It should be interesting to watch these little guys grow up, I’ve never had chicks before. In a few weeks we should also be getting ducklings and goslings.

Have you ever raised birds from chicks?

17 Comments to “Cheep, Cheep, Cheep”
  1. Deb on April 30, 2013 at 8:13 am

    Got 6 hens and 1 roo 3 wks. ago tomorrow. My first I’ve ever raised. I have the Brinsea Eco-Glow 20 brooder for heat. I will never use heat lampos as the fire danger is too great. Worth the money. I want my own eggs and eventually hope a hen or two goes Broody and then her chicks will go to freezer camp and eventually raise replacement hens for eggs. Will never raise meaties as they don’t exhibit normal chicken behavior and refuse to see them eat themselves to death. That’s cruel IMO so that’s why I have 2 RIR, 2 Buffs, 2 silver laced wyandotte hens and 1 sil. laced wyan. roo. Doing great and growing so fast. Hope your does well also. Ours will go into a portable tractor in good weather. Have a nice pen in part of the old chicken coop for them in bad and winter weather.

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    • Jennifer Fisk on April 30, 2013 at 9:04 am

      I did Freedom Rangers a couple of years ago and they were nothing like the Cornish Xs. They were ravenous for feed but also consumed large quantities of grass clippings, dandelions and kitchen detritus just like the layers. I have Kosher Kings coming this week and they are supposed to forage even more than the Freedoms and taste even better.

      Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

      • amy on April 30, 2013 at 10:00 am

        We tried the Cornish meat birds only once…..one of the most disturbing things I have ever witnessed with my livestock…..They literally will lay down and lay their heads in the food and keep on eating……To keep things “light” we often joked that a person would not want to fall down in there……We could not eat them…..ended up giving them away…..after processing…..It was an expensive….and disturbing adventure.

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  2. Megan on April 30, 2013 at 8:40 am

    We started out with 2 batches of 25 broilers last year started from day old chicks. This year we got 100. We raised our hens from chicks too and this year we are raising some for my parents and some friends.

    Reply to Megan's comment

  3. Bettina on April 30, 2013 at 8:48 am

    They are sooo cute… when you get the goslings, make sure you train them well to start with and do not take any flack. They can be vicious when they attack and I have known large dogs who were scared to death of geese!

    Reply to Bettina's comment

    • Marcia on May 1, 2013 at 5:59 pm

      Yeah, we actually have a home video with my mom showing off her rose hedge and me, in the backgroud, running from our flock of geese. Vicious buggers!

      Reply to Marcia's comment

  4. Jennifer Fisk on April 30, 2013 at 9:05 am

    I have two dozen eggs in the bator that should hatch today. Here’s hoping.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  5. Annie on April 30, 2013 at 9:18 am

    Yes, we’ve raised all kinds, from layers to meat birds. I have 6 Easter Egger chicks now. I’ve always wanted a few of those so we finally made room for some.

    Reply to Annie's comment

  6. whit on April 30, 2013 at 9:44 am

    A bucket of chicken! Ha ha! Love that. We’ve raised all of our birds from chicks or ducklings. It’s amazing to take part in the process of these lil guys growing up, although i know a mama chicken would do a much better job. Haven’t been too successful on that front yet though.

    Here’s to good growing lil guys!

    Reply to whit's comment

  7. amy on April 30, 2013 at 10:04 am

    We’ve raised all of our birds…..all kinds….My father raises quail….Based on a Carla Emery starter recipe for chicks…..that is what I have used for years….I think the chicks to do better with her recipe.

    Reply to amy's comment

    • Susy on April 30, 2013 at 1:32 pm

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • amy on April 30, 2013 at 7:32 pm

        I have a couple of copies one is quite old but the other where I got the chick food recipe is in the 9th edition…..pg 647…..Under “Home-Grown Diet All the Way.” Susy~if you cannot locate it I do not mind a bit writing it out in an email and sending it to you.

        to amy's comment

  8. Hazel on April 30, 2013 at 10:11 am

    I raised chicks last spring for the first time and they were extremely fun to watch. I took photos every day for the first 21 days and it was really neat to see them grow up so quickly!

    Did your day-old chicks go for the grass clippings at all? I provided mine the option early on, but it wasn’t until they were a few weeks old that they tried the dandelion greens and grass clippings. (Good thing spring came early last year, I would have really been in a pickle had I ordered chicks to start in March of this year!)

    Reply to Hazel's comment

    • Susy on April 30, 2013 at 1:18 pm

      The chicks started pecking at the greens right away. I notice some of them have green poop and some feed colored poop – so I guess some of them are making use of the greens.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. Colleen on April 30, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    Yes…we have raised two little flocks of chicks for eggs. Enjoy every day, they change so quickly and before you know it, they have grown out of their cute fluffy selves into full grown chickens.

    Reply to Colleen's comment

  10. Joan on April 30, 2013 at 8:46 pm

    We’ve raised all of our birds from chicks, and some of them one of our broody hens sat on so we got to watch them be born too. Baby chicks are SO cute!

    Reply to Joan's comment

  11. Michelle on May 3, 2013 at 9:51 am

    We raised our four backyard chickens from day old chicks…it was a fun experience. We have a really small house so it was interesting to have this big box of birds taking up space…by the time they were big enough to go outside we were very ready! I love having fresh eggs though…and watching them scratch around the backyard is entertaining and relaxing.

    Reply to Michelle's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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