We Got Chicks!
This year we're raising egg-layers from chicks
Emily and I had been talking about getting chickens for eggs since we first moved in October, and it was always the plan for those to be the first animals that we brought onto the homestead.
When faced with the decision between raising from chicks at a $4 average from the farm store, vs spending $30/each for 10 week old pullets, we decided it would be better to buy them as chicks and spend the money we saved on fixing up our chicken coop.
One Saturday afternoon while the kids were at Grandma's we made a trip into our local farm supply store to get an idea of what stuff they had and what kind of expenses we would be looking at to get everything set up. Emily was 36 weeks pregnant with the twins and we were looking for a reason to get out of the house. We expected that they would have some chicks, but didn't anticipate that they would all be on sale for buy-one-get-one free. Unable to pass up a good deal, we came home with 12 chicks, a bag of feed, and a heat lamp.
With 6-chicks to a box not bigger than a happy meal, we got them home and transferred them into a makeshift brooder pen made from an unused storage tote and got them set up in one of our bedrooms that is still under construction.
We kept the chicks in that make-shift brooder for two weeks and eventually got tired of having them in the house (they were getting pretty crammed for space between their feed, water, and all 12 chicks)
At roughly two weeks old, we moved the chicks from our spare bedroom to a new purpose-built brooder in the shop. Here they got a bit more space, some sunlight, and we dramatically improved the "poop in food & water" problem that we were having in the tiny brooder bin.
At this point we have no idea what we’re doing when it comes to chickens (the only animal we’ve ever raised is our 8 year old Golden-Doodle, Ruby). BUT we learned a TON and built up some confidence from the super knowledgeable Harvey Ussery, author of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock. We found Harvey through the School of Traditional Skills (which has been another invaluable resource as we’ve been preparing to launch our homestead). His “Backyard Chickens” video course was packed with information and gave us the kick in the pants we needed to jump in with both feet.
As we get along and the rough days come (as I’m sure they will), we’ll always have this memory from early days to look back on:
