Good Morning, Little Chickies

All 14 chicks made it through the night.

14 Little Chicks

All fourteen of them made it through the night. It isn’t uncommon to lose a few. They’re shipped when they’re one day old and, as you can guess, packing one day old chicks into boxes, shipping them from who knows where, halfway across the country to retail establishments, and then putting them out on display and then folks coming in and getting them, hauling them home and getting them in setup in a new location . . all before they’re 48 hours old  . . we’re lucky any of them survive.

The babies stayed in the house last night and will again tonight. Our predicted low tonight is down to 26º. Over the weekend, we’ll clean out a coop, set up a heater and move them out to a coop. Even with the brooder, and even though they’re in an extra bedroom, we didn’t want to keep the house heater too high last night so we set up an electric heater in the bedroom and they stayed nice and warm. By Saturday night, our lows will be in the 50’s and we can keep them plenty warm in a coop with a heater and the brooder going. I keep checking to be sure the bedroom door is closed but Miss Rita is so inquisitive and she’s chomping at the bit to get in there, so I’m kinda nervous about leaving the house for even a minute . . fearing she will figure out a way to get that door open and have herself a chicken dinner.

The last couple of times we’ve purchased baby chicks, they were scared as little jackrabbits. Even at one day old, they were hard to catch inside their boxes and they chirped and shrieked when we tried to hold them. Buckeyes are known for being more people friendly and these little guys will just stand there and let me pick them up, then they’ll look at me like “Are you my new mama?” . . no shrieking and loud chirping, so I’m hoping these will be more friendly than those last chickens I had.

I think I’ve mentioned it before that there are birds bred for egg production, meat birds and dual purpose birds. The birds bred for egg production will lay an egg pretty much every day for a couple of years and then they’re done. They are the boniest birds ever . . you might get decent broth from them but no way would you get much meat off those. Some birds bred for meat production are ready to butcher after 6 – 8 weeks. They’re bred to grow so quickly that if not butchered at 6 to 8 weeks, they’re so big their legs could break from their weight.

Dual purpose birds are mostly the type birds my grandmother, and probably your grandmother had (if she had chickens). The lay 3 or 4 eggs per week but they also grow into a plump chicken that can be butchered and would be a good eating chicken.

When I first got chickens, I wanted the ones that lay the most eggs. Then, we ran into the issue . . what would we do with them when they stop laying . . after 2 or a little more than 2 years? Vince said “I’m not running an old folks home for chickens!” Honestly, they get expensive to keep when they aren’t producing, and it’s time consuming to feed and care for a bunch of chickens that aren’t ever going to give you more eggs. Since they aren’t good for eating . . what DO you do with them?