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.
