Well I let three days slip by without writing. I can only blame it on being up with babies all night.
Okay, well not all night. I set my alarm each night between 3:00 and 4:00 to check on the chicks. Kent came in on Friday night and he did night duty on early Saturday morning. We shared the duty Sunday morning.
I am sad to report that we have had 3 chick casualties but all seems to have settled down now and we are at a happy nursery count of 72. I can't account for the deaths so I will simply chalk it up to the "weak chicks" explanation given to me by all of the literature I poured over when I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong.
We have labeled, rightly or not, one brooder cage Type A and the other Type B. The first night I went to check on them, the chicks in the Type B cage were, for the most part, sleeping sweetly except for a chick here and there that was pecking at the feeder or drinking at the water station. The Type A cage was a different matter. Except for a few sleepy chicks here and there, the rest of the brood was alive and partying. Running here and there, tripping over sleeping bodies, gorging on food...the contrast between the two brooders was remarkable! While I make no endorsement of the party lifestyle, I must confess that the three deaths came not from party central, but from the Type B brood. Ah! I am happy to report that by today the personality of the two cages seems to have evened out and they each pretty much mirror the other. Unfortunately, as with people, labels can stick. So until they are mixed up when they are put out on pasture in the chicken tractors in another 2 1/2 weeks, I'm afraid the labels will likely stay put.
The rain yesterday brought colder temperatures but between the heat lamps and the space heater that Kent set up in the workroom, the chicks seem to be staying comfortable. We finally got to graduate from adding a layer of paper towels down on the floor 2 - 3 times a day to cover the vast amounts of poop that these chicks excrete to simply scattering a thin layer of wood shavings down. It is decidedly easier to sprinkle wood shavings than it is to coax lively chicks out of the way to spread out a paper towel. The paper towels provided stability for the chicks' legs and prevented them from eating wood shavings prematurely, before their bodies could handle an occasional shaving mixed in their feed.
The highlight of my weekend was NOT the chicks, however. The highlight was Kent being with us. He brought "provisions" of fruit and (store bought) frozen chicken breasts along with two dozen gorgeous red roses.
Right now, I love chicken farming.
No comments:
Post a Comment