Fluffing the nest

T1 has decided to start his first business...an egg business. He has read a couple of books on chickens with still more coming from the library. We had fun looking at the different chickens at McMurry Hatchery and also liked this comparison chart of different egg laying chickens. After the hard decisions were made he ordered them from the local farm store. They are scheduled to arrive next week.

He is getting Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks (Barred Rock), Araucanas and Boven Browns. We are going to try to get some of the Cornish Cross chicks to raise as meat chickens. We are told they only take 6-8 wks to mature until they are ready to butcher.

After all the reading my son has done on chickens and the drugs they are given, he is very motivated to grow our own healthy, farm fresh chicken meat.



The first order of business was to gather supplies. They need a brooder box of some sort, many people use a cardboard box, but soon have to increase the size of the container as they grow. We had trouble getting a large refrigerator box, but were able to get some free palettes.

Free never sounded so good to my son until it became HIS money on the line. He has a poultry notebook with an envelope for the receipts. He really doesn't want to spend ANY of his money but wants to get started. I can already see what a great lesson this whole experience will be for him.

Papa and the boys went to work, tearing down the palettes.

Here you see the basic skeleton that they have set up in an insulated outbuilding we have.

Next they covered it with numerous cardboard boxes and taped them together.

They taped another box to make a small portion for the chicks when they arrive and are very small. As they grow, they will be able to remove the partition and enlarge their dwelling.

We still need to figure out a portable pen for them once they are old enough to be outside. I liked this article on portable pens for pastured poultry by Wilma Keppel.

We've never raised chickens and know very little about them. It will be an adventure.