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| We recently added 60 more chickens to our batch of 40 laying hens, getting our flock up to 100. Any extra eggs that we didn't use we sold like hot cakes to the people we deliver milk too. We have been wanting to get more chickens to be able supply more of our customers, but we hadn't found any reasonably priced chickens. We were really excited when our neighbor put all 435 chickens plus her business up for sale. We purchased the chickens last week and kept them at her place till we finished setting up the facilities. |
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| We closed in the end of our barn making two different closed in areas. |
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| The boys busy at work! |
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| Making the gates... |
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| Dad came up with a cool chicken feeder plan. |
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| The boys put quite a few together!! |
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| Dad went over to check on the chickens and the person that was supposed to be feeding them for the lady while she was away wasn't feeding them very well. Dad wanted to get them home as soon as we could. We quick put the roosts and the wood chips in and then had all the family over to help with the move. We waited till night so it would be easier to catch them. It started snowing outside, so we bundled up, grabbed all the cages we could find and headed over to get the chickens. |
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| We brought over half of them on the first trip. |
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| Unloading them... |
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| Making sure they went to bed with their crawls full! :) Dad is feeding them a special mix of ground up alfalfa in with their grain. The chickens just love it and it's not only good for them, but us as well! :) |
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| We made one more trip and were able to get all the rest. We put up temporary nesting and we were done, for the night! |
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| The last couple days we have been working at finishing up both pens. |
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| We added chips and roosts to the other side as well. Nests are being built! |
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| It is nice to have them moved. We have an outside area for them as well, but we will be building an even bigger pasture for them. I'll try to keep you updated on how it's going! :) |
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| In the mean time, we have over 500 happy chickens! :) |
That is so awesome!! Can't wait to get there and help!!��
ReplyDeleteWow so cool!! They look fun and happy!
ReplyDeleteJust curious ...do you wash all the eggs? by hand? We used to have up to 400 chickens and washing all those eggs by hand was very time consuming.
ReplyDeleteEggs don't last as long when you wash off their protective coating, so we don't wash them unless we absolutely have too. My Dad is working on building nests that keep the chickens out at night. Our goal is to have clean eggs straight from the nest! :)
DeleteAs one of the buyers of the eggs, I say, "please don't wash them!" We want the protective coating on them so they last longer. We will wash each of them before we use them.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry the cold hit right when the move had to happen! Thank you for rescuing them from the poor care they were getting from the hired hand. She is overjoyed that they've gone to a good home and that we will continue to receive her babies' eggs :)
--Kim
Yes, we know that for a fact that unwashed eggs last longer, so we only wash the ones that absolutely need it. Clean nests and a way to keep the chickens out of them at night also helps with this as well. We are working at building nests that we can close up at night. That way they can't use them for roosts!
DeleteWe are very thankful for the good care Nadine gave to the chickens!! I think after we purchased them and Nadine left the hired hand didn't really think it mattered how he cared for them anymore. :( Thankfully we were able to bring them home. :)
--The Strites