11 Acre Wood Pastured Poultry
11 Acre Wood Pastured Poultry
Several weeks ago we ordered 100 chicks to raise as broilers. We are using the pastured poultry model which is described by Joel Salatin in his book Pastured Poultry Profits. In this model the chicks are kept in a brooder until they are around three weeks old, and then are put in movable, bottomless pens out in a pasture.
These pens are moved everyday so the chickens have fresh forage to eat. It takes these fast growing Cornish Cross chickens only eight weeks to reach broiler weight, which is when we hope to eat them. After reading all about what supermarket chicken goes through before it gets to us, we aren’t so sure we want to keep eating it. Our pastured broilers will be drug free (unlike regular broilers) and in a healthy, outdoor environment. We expect them to be ready to eat around the first of the year.
The Brooder
When the chicks first arrived, we placed them in a 5×5′ pen with pine shavings in it for bedding. The watering and feeding arrangements were changed regularly as we experimented to try to get the simplest, and easiest system. Because the chicks were moving outside at three weeks we had to gradually let them get used to cooler temperatures. Taking them from 90 degrees to 40 degrees would probably have been fatal. As we began to lower the temperature, though, we began to have problems. When the chicks got too cold they would pile up to keep warm and the ones underneath would suffocate. We tried several ways to try to prevent this but ended up losing 20 before we moved them outside. Praise the Lord, though, that we only lost as many as we did!
Things you do as a broiler chick:
-Eat
-Drink
-and try to sleep.
The brooder.
Some of the smaller chicks could not deal with the competition of 99 other chicks, so we put them in a wooden ‘hospital’ pen by themselves and they seemed to do better.
One of the hospital pen convicts.
Moving out to Pasture
When the chicks were about three weeks old, we moved them out to their pastured pen. This pen is partially enclosed with metal roofing, and partially with chicken wire. For water there is an automatic bell waterer hooked to a five gallon bucket. The feed is in a long trough.
Loading a chick into the pen.
The chicks checking out their new surroundings.
Taking a drink from the automatic waterer.
The pastured pen.
Everyday we move the pen to fresh grass using a sort of portable axle put under one side. The chicks should stay in this pen until it is time for us to ‘harvest’ them. We will let you know how they taste!
Looks like ya’ll had fun! Miss you!!!