An Incredible Journey

They’re here!  It’s been 48 hours since I brought these little chicks home to live with us here on the homestead.

Three or four weeks ago I decided to order 50 chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery.  My dilemma was how do I get enough Cornish Cross chicks to feed us without paying more in the long run than I would to just buy packaged chicken at the grocery store?

My preferred method is to raise 12 chicks and starting when they’re 6 1/2 weeks old, begin harvesting a bird every 3 to 4 days to meet our needs.  That gives me a window of time between 6 1/2 weeks and 11 weeks to harvest those 12 birds.  If they reach 12 weeks they have gotten very large.  The last bird I harvested from the last batch dressed out at 9 1/2 pounds.  When these birds begin to get too large, they begin to have health problems with joints and heart.  That’s not good for either of us.

I have all sorts of reasons why I prefer to harvest the birds on an “as needed” basis.  The first being that it is less traumatic for me.  I can be more present, during the process and there is less stress for the bird.  Another reason is that all the birds we eat are fresh.  If I take multiple birds at once, I have to package them in plastic and find room for them in my small freezer.  I don’t want to rely on a freezer.  That method of storage can fail.  I don’t want to generate plastic packaging because, then what do I do with it when I’ve finished with it?  I can’t compost it on my land (or anywhere else for that matter).

In the end, I decided to order 13 Cornish X in order to ensure that I would get the full dozen I needed.  Any more than that is too many for me to handle.

I wanted to order at least 25 birds.  25 birds are better able to stay warm and safe on their journey through the mail.  But 50 birds was more affordable for me due to the cost per chick.  I wasn’t expecting sales tax, but there is was since I live in a state that has a sales tax.  Now other states are charging sales on items shipped to our state.  That is definitely new and adds to the cost.  Since I think of these birds as food, I have to adjust my thinking to paying sales tax on food now.

Having decided on 50 birds, I needed to order another 37 birds.  Transitioning to a dual purpose bird has been my plan since I first began raising Cornish X, but I knew it would take time.  Cornish X are the fast food of chickens.  Dual purpose birds as layers/meat birds grow slower.  Having taken this into consideration, I ordered 37 unsexed Buff Orpingtons.  Good layers, good meat birds, and best of all, good moms.  Getting a flock that self replicates is my main goal.  Chicks through the mail is not optimal for me.  It causes stress on both the birds and myself, it costs more than is practical for me to pay, and it uses more resources.  Plus until I started raising Cornish X, nature took care of increasing my flock.  A hen goes broody and hatches chicks.  She tends them and they get a good start in life.  No brooder boxes, no heat lamps necessary.  The hen does all the work.  Most of my flock was killed off in a Coyote attack, and my young rooster was killed and the older rooster was injured.  The end of the line for my flock.

So I settled on 13 Cornish X and by the time they are all harvested 12 weeks later, the Buff Orpington roosters should be large enough to begin harvesting.  I will save out one or two of the best roosters for breeding and can harvest the rest of the males as meat birds.  I will also save out a dozen hens to begin laying eggs.  I won’t need more grown meat birds for another 10 weeks or so.  By which time I hope to have gotten a second batch of birds raised to fill that need.

I am hoping in the final analysis, to receive only 3 orders of birds through the mail, while I build a flock on the homestead that will meet our needs.  Moms raising staggered batches of chicks will allow me to provide my family with the eggs and meat we need, and maybe even to have a surplus of eggs to sell.

More Complications

After trying for several days to contact the nearby hatchery I wrote about in my last post, I realized that they were not going to be an option.  When I called the only number listed on their website, I got a recorded message that said, the number was not set up to take calls.  What??  After two days of that, I sent an email.  No reply there.  Then I did an internet search for an alternate phone number.  I found one, but it was for a construction business, but at the end of the message they gave a local phone number for the hatchery.  I called that number only to get the message that the customer had not set up a voice mail box.  As a last resort, I called the number for the construction company.  I wanted to at least try to leave a message and maybe get current information for the hatchery through that other number.  However, the voice mailbox for that number was full.  After 3 days of trying to get in touch with the hatchery, I had to move on.

Starting over, I began “shopping” hatchery websites.  There didn’t seem to be anything near me that caters to “back yard” chicken production.  I finally had it narrowed down to three well known hatcheries.  The prices were all going to be much higher than I had budgeted for, doubling the price per pound of my birds.  Now I had another decision to make.

For all my calculations, I had never considered the value of my time in raising these birds.  The savings in USD alone made it well worth the time I was spending.  And I enjoy the experience.  But now I would have to factor in more than just “paid out”, because if it was just a matter of cash outlay, I could buy chicken at my local co-op for the same price per pound that I would now be paying to raise birds.  Maybe even less, depending on any chicks lost in shipping.

Weighing cost against cost, tilted the scale in the favor of not raising birds.

Weighing environmental and ethical questions tipped the scale in favor of raising birds.

Adding my time to the equation tipped the scale back in favor of not raising birds.

But in the end, adding considerations of quality fresh food raised with love, and the fact that I do enjoy raising chickens helped me to decide in favor of continuing to raise meat birds.

Now the question became, how can I tip this very balanced scale more in favor of continuing to raise chickens?  In other words, what can do to make it much more economical again, and less time consuming, since those were my two biggest debits on the ledger sheet.

The answers to those questions came down to design, and flexibility in my budget.  I’ll leave those topics for the next post.

The Beat Goes On

It’s Springing into Summer around here.  Things are growing and the weather is warm.

I got too busy to post much more about the chicks.  The Cornish X are at about 9 weeks now.  The average cost per pound for these birds is about $1.57 / lb.  This includes grain, pine shaving bedding and water.  I harvested the first bird at 6 weeks and it weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces.

My system has me picking up a new batch of 12 chicks every 6 weeks and raising them with love, and organic non gmo food.  They have plenty of room, and a good healthy life.  This breed grows quickly, so by human concepts of time, they have a short life.  They are fully grown at about 8 weeks, and are large enough to feed a small family by 6 weeks.  A 6 week old bird will make many meals for us, and feeds us for about 2 1/2 to 3 days.  I harvest birds as needed, so that means one every 3 or 4 days from 6 weeks to 11 weeks.  I don’t package my birds, and I don’t freeze them.

Anyway, that was my system.  I got some bad news from the farm I get the chicks from.  After 5 months, they told me they won’t be selling chicks anymore.  As of this moment.

The best laid plans...

I was stunned, I will admit.  I knew this arrangement would not be permanent, but I was really wanting it to at least last through the summer.  Stage two of my chicken raising plan was to phase out Cornish Cross (which are complicated hybrids, which I cannot create on my small place), and to phase into a dual purpose heritage bird.  After a little research, I had settled on raising Buff Orpingtons.  Good moms.  They go broody often.  And I need birds that can keep the flock going naturally, if this is to work.

I was planning on raising the Buff Orps over the summer and getting them established, while continuing to raise Cornish X.  My place is small, so I can’t just get 50 birds all at once, I have to do this gradually.  I expected the time line to take somewhere in the nature of 9 to 18 months before I could stop ordering Cornish X chicks.

What’s more is that I’m already 6 weeks behind where I wanted to be.  I had some renovations planned for housing them, and had hoped to avail myself of my dad’s experience.  At first we settled on April, then he needed to pushed it back to May, but life happens and as it turns out he’s needed elsewhere right now.  Finally I just had to admit to myself that I’m just going to have to figure it out on my own.  Thank goodness for DIY videos.  I have to power through somehow.

So that’s complication number 1.

Complication number 2...I found a nearby hatchery back in February, that seems perfect.  I would have ordered the Buff Orpingtons from them back in March, but the housing situation wasn’t ready yet.  With this latest development, I’m glad I didn’t.  And here’s why...

In order to get the same price that I’m paying now for chicks, I have to order 25 birds.  But I can’t possibly deal with 25 Cornish X with my current system.  For one thing, I would have to start packaging and freezing the excess birds.  After 11 weeks, they’re already too big.  Their bodies can’t take the stress.  It wouldn’t be humane for me to keep them longer, that’s why I would have to package and freeze the extra birds.  That is simply not an option for me.  I won’t do it.  So now what?

I decided that the solution might be to have 12 Buff Orps and 13 Cornish X shipped together.  I have to talk to the hatchery, but if that is an option, then I’m good to go.  In 6 weeks, I can have another shipment duplicating the first, and then see where I’m at after that.

If nothing else, it gets me closer to fulfilling the plan.

I’m off to call the hatchery.

Cycle of Life: Cornish Cross Week 3

Cornish X at week 3.  They are really growing fast now.  Eating 3 1/2 times as much food as when they first arrived.

And speaking of food, here is the cost of their first two weeks of life.

End of week 1= $2.50 total for 12 chicks.

By the end of week 2 they have eaten 15.25 pounds of chick starter at $.50 a pound.

On these 12 chicks so far I have spent $2/chick plus $7.63 on food making a total of $31.63 by the end of week 2.

One of these days I will have to start keeping track of how much water they drink, since I do pay for that.  It will work out to pennies, I’m sure, since I haven’t really noticed an increase in my water bill in the last few months that I’ve been raising these birds.

And I will also need to work out how much bedding I use for each batch during their lifetime, as well as electricity for the heat lamp over their first two weeks.  (Daytime only.  At night I put a small cardboard box over them with small air holes, which helps to hold in their body heat, somewhat like being under a hen.  Well, anyway, it keeps their heat in and the night time chill out).

Since they are indoors, I start weaning them off the lamp after about 12 days.  With this batch it was easily done due to some unexpected high temperatures (A high of 79º F. for two day in a row during that time period).

The reason I take them off the heat lamp early, is to get them acclimated to outdoor temps faster.  It also stimulates quick feather growth.  Right now, their wings have filled in, and they have feathers on their backs.

In two weeks, if the weather is dry, and mild, I will begin transitioning them to their outdoor life gradually.  It’s important to get them outdoors quickly for their health and ours.  While they are feathering out, there is a fine dust coating their living space, which makes its way into our living space, even through the fine mesh screen, I have placed over their tank.

And by the end of week 4 no amount of bedding will disguise that faint fermented bready smell that goes with the microbiome of deep bedding and chicks.  Healthier for all concerned if they get into their outdoor quarters within four weeks.

That’s it for now.  Just biding time while they grow another week.

Cycle of Life: Cornish Cross: Week 2

It may be hard to tell in this photo, but the chicks have easily doubled in size in just one week.  The feathers have filled in on their wing tips.  I have been told that ground birds develop wing feathers faster than birds which nest in trees.  In my experience, chicks are usually able to begin experimental flying when they are about a week old depending on the bird.  (My Rhode Island Reds are incredible flyers and can even control their flight in a way that most chickens don’t).  Pictured below is a chick at one week old.  You can see the wing feathers at the tips.

In Permaculture Design, it is crucial to do an energy audit, in order to assess the true cost and what you get out of your investment.  It’s not just about dollars, but other factors are considered as well.  So for my own purposes...just as an exercise...I am recording some of my data here, so I can better analyze this process.

Feed: Organic Chick Starter.  I buy it from a local farm who gets theirs by the ton.  I bring a bucket which holds about 25 pounds of starter at 50 cents a pound.  I have been told it comes from Alberta Canada.  Additional cost: truck transportation food miles.  Other shipping?  Mono-culture farming methods? 

Bedding: Pine Shavings.  I get 100 liters/3.6 cubic feet compressed for $7.61 which lasts me about 6 weeks because I also use it for two cat litter boxes, and a composting toilet.  My biggest regret about buying the shavings is that it comes packaged in plastic.  The benefit to the shavings is that I am building soil when I compost it.  The shavings come from a local source, 190 miles/306 km from where I live, and according to the distance website, would use 6 gallons of gasoline if I were driving a traditional car.  A large truck making that trip would be using different fuel, getting different gas mileage, and it would be carrying a lot more freight to offset the impact of the distance traveled.  So on the credit side, I am getting a biodegradable material which serves multiple purposes and then breaks down to soil, on the debit side, it is packaged in non biodegradable plastic.  On the credit side, it is coming from less than 200 miles away, on the debit side, I don’t really know how it’s sourced.  The shavings come from a fairly local place, but where did the wood come from?  How is it grown?  How is it harvested?  Etc, Etc, Etc.

Housing: 100 gallon Rubbermaid stocktank.  This is not something I would have purchased brand new, or even thought to purchase at all under most circumstances, but I must admit, it works really well for my needs.  It comfortably houses twelve Cornish X chicks for up to 5 weeks.  It’s clean enough to keep in my house in the cold winter months, and it’s deep enough to use the deep bedding method which helps keep the chicks healthy, and keeps the smell down.  I got it from the same farm I get the feed from, because this tank sprang a leak and they were unable to seal it.  So the positive here is I got housing for the peepers at no cost, it’s a very no fuss/no muss solution, and rather than going into the landfill, which was where it was headed, it was given a second life.  If there is a negative to this component, I haven’t seen it.

Water:  When I first started keeping chickens years ago, I used tap water, which was chlorinated.  The community well I’m on had recently started adding chlorine when I first moved here nearly 20 years ago.  It occurred to me somewhere in the process, that chlorine was probably not good for my gut flora.  And if it wasn’t good for mine, it probably wasn’t good for the chickens’ gut flora.  Right now, I use filtered tap water.  I have a Berkey water filter, and  until I get some kind of roof water harvesting thing going, this is working fine.  Again, the Berkey is a multipurpose device, in that it serves our needs for drinking water, cooking, houseplants, and the animals.  It is a long lasting component which will bring more benefit than harm during its lifetime.  

Water Dispenser:  It’s a glass jar on a metal drinking base.  I chose this one over the plastic option because plastic is non biodegradable and because plastic leaches components into the water that have been said to disrupt the endocrine system.  Shortly after I bought the metal version, I read that galvanized steel items have been tagged by California legislation to be potentially carcinogenic.  So I did a little search and found it contained two substances  - Nickel and Hexavalent Chromium - both of which are listed on California’s prop 65 website.  Not to mention that after just a few weeks of use, the metal one is rusting inside.    I might need to find a different solution.

A Cornish X chick at one week old.

Life Cycles: Cornish Cross: Week 1

A new batch of chicks arrived on Wednesday March 6th.  I got a text first thing that morning to say they’d arrived at a local farm and that I should pick them up right away.  I rearranged my day and hurried out the door in order to be there before 10:15 am.

As I pulled out of the drive, it began snowing and I cranked the heat in the Prius (my one and only all purpose “farm” vehicle), to warm the interior for the chicks.

Handing over my small cardboard box to the farmer, he returned it with a dozen fuzzy yellow chicks nestled inside.

I was running low on bedding so I swung by the local feed store to pick up some pine shavings for the peepers, on my way back.

Back at home, I filled the 100 gallon stock tank with deep bedding, added a food pan and a water despenser and turned on the heat lamp.  I moved the chicks into their new home and congratulated myself that for the first time, I finally had a system that was ready to go within 5 minutes.

One less thing to thick about, as I headed out the door to restock my empty larder at the local food co-op before the snow got too bad.

This photo was taken on March 7th.  I know it’s difficult to get a sense of how tiny, but the chick is standing between a deck of cards and a coaster.