4 week fryers

Well here are the beasts a little over 4 weeks. I forgot to shoot on Thursday. They started stinking pretty bad in the house, so I moved them outside where they belong. They were most of the way into their new feathers, so it was time. I swept out one of my grain bins, put down some shavings, and through in my monster feeders. So far the bin has been quite ideal for a coop. It didn't cost me anything, and the chickens seem to like their new home. I took a shot from above through an access hole, so you can see the layout of the bin a little better. I think the birds are edible sized now actually. The Cornish game hens you buy in the store are just really young broilers like these.

Chickens and Heroes

Well here are the beasts at three weeks. You can see the exponential growth curve starting to be realized now. I bet they doubled in weight this week. Getting pretty ugly too. They are about 75% into a set of new feathers. I snapped a couple photos of my feeder I built too. The doors are down to the feed troughs, and you can see the string (baling twine baby) that I use to simultaneously raise and lower the doors so I don't actually have to crawl in the pen and do it before work. Just swivel the 2x2 door jams out of the way (so they can't sneak a midnight snack on me) and pull the string up. Presto, feeding frenzy. Actually had one die in the fray last week. I think his buddies broke his leg and trampled him in a effort to get his share of the breakfast. They are getting pretty durable and big now, so I don' think I will lose many more. They are sort of fragile when they are really small.

What else is new around here other than stupid chickens? Well I just got a bonus at work - that made my day. A little seed money for the tractor fund (the homemade plow had its day, but real prairie blizzards and 4 foot drifts call for something with hydraulics) Last weekend I went on a "Heroes" binge big time. I had never heard of the show before, but I downloaded it for my brother inlaw (serving his country in the big sandy as we speak). Any way, it turns out, its a phenomenal show, and horribly addicting. Makes 24 look like child's play as far as the "cant' wait for the next episode" phenomena. Good thing I only had the first 11 episodes, cuz Amanda and I watched them all. I cued up 12 to 18. Have to wait till summer for the season to be over to get them all.

JZ

Chickens @ 2 weeks

Thought I would through a couple of 2 week pictures up for comparison. They are getting big enough that they don't all fit around the 3 little chick feeders I bought any more, so yesterday I built two big 4 foot long feeders with troughs on each side, a big hopper that holds approximately 100 lbs of feed or so, and lids for the troughs on hinges so I can shut down the feeding frenzy at night to stave off the heart attacks. I will throw a picture of the contraption up with week three photos

Chicken, the orginal white meat

Spring is here, and what could be better than some broiler chickens to fatten up for sunday dinners this summer. With the red meat production streamlined, I thought I would move on to some white meat. My partner in crime Jon and I decided to go in together on the project. 60 chickens for him and 60 for me. Except the hatchery folks cant count to well, so I ended up paying for 120 and getting 117. The hatchery said that males (which are what I got) will reach 7 1/2 lbs in about 8 weeks. They grow really fast. Broiler chickens are supposed to be the most efficient meat animals there are, but we will see I guess. I decided to put them in my basement until the weather warms up a bit, at which point I will move them to one of my five empty grain bins. They ought to work pretty well for low budget chicken coops.



The photos above were taken when the chicks were one day old. The photo to the left was taken when the they were 1 week old, and you can already see how fast they are growing. The little buggers drink about 3 gallons a day, and eat about 15 lbs a day or so. So far, only 2 have died. One didn't learn to drink I think, and the other one got smothered by his friends.