Cornish Cross Spring 2019

[baymule]

No, they mail them directly. I will never order chicks through TSC again. Even the employees at the store I talked to said they never order chicks from TSC. The chicks I bought at the TSC store are healthy and happy.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, I picked up 10 bargain CX at TSC this year for $1 ea., along with some $.50 NH chicks...letting a broody raise them. They seem to be from a good strain this year, foraging fast and hard and growing well.

Figured I couldn't go wrong for $13 and they will add some more meat to my winter stores.

I started out using the heating pad brooder with these chicks, but since they were older by the time I got them, they couldn't learn how to use it....had to switch them to a lamp, but without the heat lamp bulb. Just used a regular 100 kw bulb for them for a week until I could turn them out to forage, along with a broody that needed some babies to raise.

 

[baymule]

They look good Bee! I wish I had a broody to raise mine! Boy, would she be overworked! LOL

 

[baymule]

In my typical fashion, I get first and build accommodations second..... or maybe third, fourth or WTH. I could give a long list of occurrences that kept me from building said accommodations, such as incessant rain for weeks, DH having prostate surgery and trips to the doctor for check ups, keeping grandkids, more rain, and more rain. Finally we have had almost a week of NO RAIN. No doctor appointments either.

We finished today and I must say it is one of my better building projects. AND I’ll have it for next time.

Yeah, I know the timeline. After all, I’ve been feeding, watering and cleaning them twice daily. So if you have any negative comments on how long I’ve had them in brooders, shut up and choke on it. I’m hot, tired and don’t give a crap.

First pet carrier of chickens in their new home.

Since it is on recently cleared bare dirt, I bedded them with hay.
The end gate is hardware cloth and a 10” strip of hardware cloth all around the bottom.

Side view.

The back. The wood bar is for lifting it so we can shift it over a little at a time. I learned last year that the CCX will sit comfortably until you drag the coop right over them. This one is a little heavy, but can be moved without the tractor!

It has top access, if needed. I can get a fishing net and dip them up!

So chickens are off my porch, in the shade in their new home. I have propped my feet up while I updated this thread and guzzled ice water. Going back outside to clean the mess off my porch. Hot, tired, but a good tired. Pork roast in oven is done, DH already hit it to make a sandwich. Later.

 

[baymule]

My bare dirt contrasts sharply with @Beekissed's lush green grass. Sigh..... we recently chopped, dragged and burned green briar thickets in this spot. Then cut down 30-ish small trees, leaving the big ones. The chicken pooped hay will be spread to assist the soil. I'll be planting giant Bermuda here.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Looks good and should function well for ya! I'm not sayin' nothing about how long they were in the brooder, lol. I know "somebody" who once had them in there til' their heads were just about brushing the top...stuff gets away from ya. We know all about how surgeries will slow ya down and flip your "to do" list upside down!

Congrats!

 

[baymule]

Thanks FEM. I feel like I’m just running around putting out fires. I hadn’t even finished feeding this evening and a friend came over to cut two trees we said he could have for firewood. I put the log chunks in the tractor bucket and dumped them in his trailer. The sheep are enjoying the tops now. Came in at 8:00, took shower and I’m done.

And I had 17 EE chicks in a box in a bedroom...... in the pictures of the CCX tractor you can see an A frame small coop. It is now in the backyard and the 17 chicks are in it.

I feel accomplished today.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, are you going to tractor those meaties out on your sheep pasture? Nice build, BTW! I often wonder if the birds get hot in those tractors with the tin roofing on top? Salatin uses tin on all of his too and they have no shade to park it under out in pasture.

My meaties are outgrowing their feathers already....sure hope they can keep good legs until they are full grown. They are only eating a tiny fraction of what other folks feed meaties but seem to be getting fat out on forage, all the same.

They have to share their feed with 17 hens, 6 NH chicks their own age, 7 tiny chicks and 3 foster ducklings....and the whole group get approx. 6-8 c. of FF per day, if that.

The rest is found out in the big green yonder....

Raising your own food is fun, huh?

Had to kill this varmint this morning....Ben had it treed up by the coop.

We have been overrun with possum this year...this is the 5th we've had to kill. And Ben found a den the other day on our walk back on the land, flushed out a female with a hoard of babies on her back....I had nothing to kill them with and Ben isn't a killer, he's a finder. He's 3 and has zero kills to his name.

So, now I'm carrying a machete with me on my walks.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I get you @Beekissed !

My setter found a gopher the other day, he happened to be between it and the tunnel entrance so it ran. He chased, but a 12 year old setter with bad hips is not the fasted thing out there, lol.
It happened that we (DH and I) were just out throwing the ball for our GShepherd - who was oblivious to anything beyond the ball in his mouth at the time.
The stupid gopher headed straight towards me - I had nothing to kill it with so I did the "don't climb my legs dance" and it ran around me and headed to DH. All he had was the stupid thrower for the dogs ball - so he took a swing and wacked the gopher sideways and then held it down with the thrower. I headed to the barn to get a shovel to kill it with. By the time I got back, DH had to shift position to step on the gophers head because setter had got there and wanted to "Smell it". Gopher was pretty mad and trying to bite anything close, and dog noses are easy targets for mad gophers. That dog is a sweetheart and will "FIND" for you but doesn't kill anything... Our Irish Setter was the same way.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

WD, your story made me chuckle. So, you did kill the critter, yes???