Chickens at 4 Weeks - Pasture Birds!

Their first week out on the lawn!

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to drop a quick post on you about the chickens.  So far, so good.  They are out on the lawn soaking up some vitamin D, and avidly searching for bugs and worms.  They seem to enjoy it!  We did have one little issue with a chicken that had gotten hurt, and the rest of the flock pecked at her until she had a pretty violent looking gash in her thigh.  So we isolated her and cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide, and applied a little antiseptic ointment.  Just like one of my kids!  I don't imagine she'll be on her own very long.  Other than that, no real problems!  I do want to test a nuclear warhead on that watering unit.  It's a great concept, in theory, but it doesn't work.  I'm filling it 3 or 4 times per day.  I'm probably going to bring it back to Tractor Supply.

Thanks for reading,
-Jay

Our Turkeys are Here!

Well, here we go again.  More baby birds on the farm!  As you can see we got a little inventive with a kiddie pool that the previous owners of our farm left under the deck last year when we bought the place.  Thanks Schwerds!  Our rapidly growing chicks now call this place home.  Next week I'll have to find yet another home for them.  I almost can't keep up!  I put a scrap towel and a mover's blanket over the fence to help retain some heat.  They are still babies you know. 



The new chick brooder made from a kiddie pool left under our deck when we bought the house!

The chicks are still a little skittish, but it seems like they like having a roof over their brooder so they can hide.  They are going through 2 gallons of water and about 1 lb. of food per day!  They are growing machines!  

The chicks are getting bigger

Some of them are a little more friendly than others; curious almost.  They are starting to get ugly now, and they're starting to fly a little.  You may not know, but the chicken you're used to eating is actually a very ugly bird when it's full grown.  I just happen to be growing the same breed of chicken, but a heck of a lot differently!  No hormones, no antibiotics, and completely natural food.  That's the Lavasseur Family Farm way.  Oh, and happy chickens too!

They are curious about the camera

And without further ado, our 16 baby heritage turkeys!  This would be the reason that the chicks had to find a new home!  We are pretty limited on the brooders around this farm.  We got our birds from Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys, and just like our chicken hatchery, they included an extra bird on the house!  So we have 5 Narragansett, 6 Bronze, and 5 Black heritage turkeys.  They will be ready for Thanksgiving this year, and so far 4 have been claimed (no one has specified which breed), leaving 12 for anyone who wants to purchase pasture raised heritage turkey.  Disclaimer: these birds aren't cheap.  I will still be selling at cost, but you should know that they were each $12 before they even got here!  Turkey feed is about $25/100 lbs., but I have no idea how much they eat because I've never raised them before.  I will average the free bird out over the rest of the birds, and I will be selling by the pound since the males are significantly larger than the females.  Just let us know if you're interested.

Our 16 new heritage turkeys!  Just one day old.





They're very small, but will be very huge!



Somebody is in love...

 

Thanks for reading,

-Jay