Baby Chickens

Yesterday we drove out to Caldwell and picked up our order of day-old chicks.  We ordered 2 Araucana, the kind that lay pale green eggs, 6 Black Australorp, a White Crested Black Polish as a pet, a White Silkie as a pet and 50 White Plymouth Rocks.  That's a total of 60.  When we picked them they said they threw in a few extra.

The first step with new chicks is to take them out one at a time and dip their beak into the water until they take their first drink.  As we took them out we counted and discovered they threw in more than a few extra.  There were 80 chicks!  That's a lot. 

The brooder we set up is way too small.  The largest group we've brooded before was 35 so this is a lot more. This brooder was probably too small for 60 but it's definitely too small for 80.  Today we need to extend it by taping boxes on the ends to make it longer. 

The kids love the baby chicks.  They ask about once an hour if they can hold them.

Some of these chickens will replace our laying flock and the rest will go to the freezer.  If these all live, we'll be butchering over 60.  The largest number we've butchered in the past was 25 or 30.  Hmm... we might have to do two butcher days.

The chicks cost $95 total so the portion for chickens in the freezer is about $71.  We spent $20 on chick feed.  When they get bigger we'll switch them to grain that we mix ourselves which will cost about $30.  That averages out to $2 per chicken in the freezer.  Our finished chickens weight about 3-4 lbs.  That works out to about 50¢/lb. for humanly raised meat.