Friday, June 25, 2010

What's coming up next?? A quick update

IN THE BROODERS

1. We now have 60 turkeys that are itching to be out on pasture as they keep jumping out of the brooder! They love to chirp really loud when they can't see their friends (even if their friends are right behind them). The first 40 are going out on pasture next Tuesday!



2. We have about 100 cornish cross chickens in the brooders who are almost ready to go out on pasture. They will be on pasture for about 6 weeks before processing.



For your review: Cornish cross are the chickens we eat 99.9% of the time. They are bred to grow fast, so they take about 8 weeks to grow and process. They taste a lot like the chicken you are used to, but are much better fresh and raised on pasture with no antibiotics or hormones. Red rangers also grow pretty fast, but we are expecting them to taste different. All the other breeds we are raising (delawares, white plymouth rock and naked neck) grow much more slowly. They will be slightly smaller at processing time and taste different too.

3. We have 204 new red rangers that are now 1 day old. We picked them up at the post office yesterday. Our post office loves us! Our mail is very loud compared to plain old letters. These new chicks are in the brooders. Red rangers grow quickly (8-10 weeks until processing). They will go out on pasture once they get feathers and can tolerate varying temperatures.



OUT ON PASTURE

1. We have about 85 cornish cross chickens out on pasture that will likely be processed mid-late July. We also have ~90 white plymouth rock and ~90 delawares on pasture that will be processed at ~6 months of age (in about 1.5-2 months). They have thicker and more colorful feathers than the cornish cross chickens.

2. We just received another electric fence and solar powered battery in the mail for the turkeys that are going out next week.

STILL COMING, OR IN THE MAIL

More chickens and more turkeys. I don't know exactly what because Danny is currently out of town so I'll let you know later. We'll try to post processing dates soon so you can order in advance. I sure appreciate Danny and all his work, because when he's gone I am on chicken duty and baby duty full time, and working part time. It's kind of crazy!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks super awesome. I will send you the pics of us out visiting the chickens. Fun fun. We enjoyed "helping" you with the chickens and roaming turkeys. I hope the chicken I helped "find" is the best tasting one yet. If I was around in a few months...I would totally buy it (do you know what one I am talking about?)
Adios

Lydia said...

Emily and I are wondering: how do you get chickens in the mail? Or I guess the real question is how do they survived going through the mail?? lol