Maran Chicks

On a totally unrelated note, we bought 5 Maran chicks from our neighbor Rick at www.rolofarms.com about a week ago. They have been living in a clear plastic storage bin brooder but I moved them yesterday into one half of the big white brooder box. They have lots of room now and are pretty happy in there.

This is the original guy that I hatched from my home-made ice chest incubator. The other 5 are a couple days behind. We gave him a stuffed animal to keep him company when he was all by himself. (An eagle, really?!? You would think that I could have found a stuffed chicken so close to Easter time, but no such luck.) Now this little guy has taken on the role as protector of the flock (we are convinced that he is going to be a rooster). Any disturbance and he cranes his neck to see what's going on, then rushes to the intruding hand, etc. and begins pecking at it.

My original intent was to take advantage of one of our layer hens that went broody and put some eggs under her. Then she could raise them and we will have some fresh new layers next year. However she came off the eggs after about a week. I didn't think any of them would make it cause the eggs were barely warm when I found them and I had difficulty getting my incubator to stabilize on a good temperature for a few days. So out of 6 eggs I got this one little guy. I couldn't leave him alone so we bought the other 5 as soon as they hatched. Now we have 3 Black Copper Marans, 2 Blue Copper Marans, and this one guy somewhere in between, as he is from a different blood line. I thought he was black but now he looks gray when compared to the other chicks.

Week 4 - Getting Bigger

Today the chicks are 22 days old, and they are starting to look like little chickens instead of big chicks. They are almost completely feathered out and are flying and running around like crazy. No losses or sickness that I can tell. They seem to really enjoy being outside with room to roam and forage and enjoy the sun shine (it rained all day yesterday).

I raised the roosting branches a little higher the other day and put a step behind the heat box to encourage them to get used to jumping up on top of stuff and roosting.

They have been foraging and eating lots of grass as well. The grass in the pen started out about 8-10 inches tall and is now down to 3 inches in just one week. Today I start switching the feed from 23% Chick Starter to 20% BTG Grower. I bought 300 lbs. yesterday, I just hope that is enough to get through another 3-4 weeks. I am filling both of those 24" feeders twice a day now. By the way, I am only using locally milled "Dr. Jim Z's (Zamzows) Premium - All Natural Feed". Its the "Highest Quality Hand Crafted feed that is Medication Free, Urea Free, Meat and Bone Meal Free, and Pesticide Free. I get it at the Feed Mill in Meridian Idaho.

[UPDATE] Well Saturday was very warm and the grow out pen is about worn out. The grass is down to the ground and the poop is starting to smell. So we moved the chicks from the grow out pen into the hoop house. It was more work than I expected. We cornered the chicks in the pen and caught them one at a time and put them into a large dog kennel and then wheel barrowed them out to the hoop house in 2 batches. This was a good opportunity to count them and all 46 were there as expected.

The single chick that I gave to my friend Mary is also doing well and is helping to raise a bunch of day old chicks that she hatched out of her incubator. The meat chick is so large that the hatchlings apparently think that it's their mother. 

Week 3 - Grow Out Pen

I decided that the brooder box is not big enough for 50 chicks through 3 or 4 weeks. So I started working on a "grow out pen". Next to the shed there is a 12x20 foot section that is very well fenced with 2" welded wire. So I added a layer of 1" plastic mesh that I had laying around to the front half, and wired up a 2 foot high border of scrap OSB plywood around the perimeter of the back half and across the gate (so that I can step over it but the chicks can't get out). I put a tarp over half the area so they will have shade and dry ground.

The best idea came from Mary, was to build a "heat box" rather than using a 250 watt heat lamp. A heat box is 3 to 4 foot square, a foot high with a roof but no floor, and a small gap at the bottom for the chicks to be able to get under neath. I wired it up with two regular old 60 watt light bulbs on opposite ends on the inside near the top. I also screwed a cedar board over the gap at the bottom on the two back sides so that it will contain the heat better and give them safe corner. Not only does the box keep them warm, but it also provides them shelter and protection from cats and hawks, and uses less than half the electricity of a single heat lamp.

LESSON LEARNED: Use a heat box in a confined area rather than brooder box.

Yesterday the chicks were 2 weeks old and just way too big for the brooder box. So I decided it was time to move half of them to the grow out pen. I tried to pick out the ones that had the most feathers. I ended up with 24 in the pen and 22 left in the brooder box. Here you can see them in their new home for the next week or two.

I sat and watched them carefully for an hour or so. At first they were very timid and took near 20 minutes to come out of the box that I moved them in. Then they finally started to check things out. It was really fun to watch them explore and flap their wings and run around. Some were even flapping and chest bumping with each other, probably learning how to be roosters. You can see a few chicks just under the heat box in these pictures.

My layer hens were extremely jealous to see these guys eating in front of them, so I threw some scratch for them in front of the pen so that everyone can get to know each other. Maybe the chicks will learn some "chicken behavior" from them, who knows, can't hurt.

This guy is Mr. Curious. I watched him (he has a distinguishing white breast) as he was always the first one to explore around the back side of the heat box, out to the back corners of the pen, then he came right up to my layer hen, "Beakers", without any hesitation. Could be that he is brave, could be that he is curious enough to get himself in trouble. We will see.

[UPDATE]


The first half of the chicks did so well in the pen that I moved the other half in to the pen 3 days later. I was worried about the cooler weather (40-45 degrees at night) for the first night with each move, but all survived and are doing great. I cleaned the disgusting pine shavings out of the brooder box and cleaned up the mess in the shed. Now both my compost bins are full.

The chicks have almost finished the first 50 pound bag of feed (25% protein BTG starter), I am going to put them on 23% protein chick starter for the next week or so to reduce the protein content some. Then they will all get moved out to the hoop house. I still haven't posted my hoop house build. I will do that soon.

And we got a pair of goats, "Brownie" and "Granny", to eat down the grass and weeds in the pasture. That was another whole adventure! I had to add a hot wire to the pasture fence to keep the younger one from getting her head stuck in the fence. Some how she managed to squeeze it through, but then the angle of her horns didn't allow her to back her head out. It was a major struggle to free her without cutting my fence. After the fourth time I put her on a cable tie out until I got the hot wire finished. It took her all of 5 seconds to figure out the hot wire, I about died laughing when she hit it with her nose and jumped 6 feet straight up in the air. She won't do that again.

Week 2 - Problems

The morning of day 7 or 8 I found a second dead chick in the brooder box. Others looked sickly and one in particular was very lethargic. The chicks looked bloated and unclean, and some of them had poop stuck to their butt. I pulled out one chick that looked bad and my wife and I cleaned him up real good, as he had poop all under his wing and it was getting nasty.

Worried that we would lose more chicks I called my chicken friend, Mary at The Hen Connection. She immediately came over and took a look at the chicks. First order of business was to with hold food for 4 to 5 hours as they were apparently eating themselves to death. Second we cleaned all of the "poopy butt" off of the chicks. If it hardens on the chicks, they cant poop and will literally explode inside. Yuck! Then we decided to lower one of the heat lamps an inch or so to keep it warmer in the brooder box. But the most important decision was to with hold the food at night to keep them from over eating, especially on 25% protein BTG starter feed.

LESSON LEARNED: With hold food at night with meat chicks.

As expected the lethargic chick died that afternoon, and I gave one chick to Mary so that leaves 46. But I am happy to report no more losses since, and they are looking great now. No more poopy butt or severe bloating. And they are feathering out nicely.

By day 12 the pine shavings in the brooder box were getting gross so I cleaned them all out and added some fresh shavings, but I need to buy another bag and do it again soon. The chicks are so big that they are making a huge mess, and I have to check their food and water 3 times a day now. This guy is a huge for his age.

Week 1 - The Chicks Are Here

DAY 1


I got the call from Pine Pride Hatchery this last Tuesday (3/27) that my 50 Red Star Ranger chicks were ready to be picked up. I really wasn't expecting them for a few more days so I was a little unprepared. Since I was in the middle of a construction project in the garage, I decided that the brooder box needed to be moved into the shed. This was a good decision in hind sight since it is secure and draft free, no loud noises like power saws, no paint or car fumes, etc. Moving that box by myself however was no small feat. Thank God for the wheels that got it 90% of the way. I added pine shavings, set up the feeder and watering jar, and turned on the heat lamps.

I picked up the chicks from the hatchery mid afternoon and the drive back home was uneventful except for some occasional peeping. My wife helped me put the chicks into the brooder box, one at a time and gently dipping their beaks into the water trough. I have read that this helps them to know where the water is. Of course my wife took about 5 minutes with each chick giving them lots of love and cooing over them. Telling her that we were going to be slaughtering and eating them in 12 weeks didn't seem to matter much to her. Just wait till they are big enough to start making a huge mess and then we will see how cute they are. Anyhow here are a few pictures from day one.

Okay so they are pretty cute now. But I know whats coming soon. Poop, and lots of it. 

DAY 3


The chicks are doing well. No dead or sickly chicks, and the temperature must be good cause they aren't bunched up or keeping away from the heat lamps. I cannot believe how active they are, running back and forth from the heat lamp to the food and water. I also put some branches in for them to climb over and to roost on. They are very curious little guys. They love to peck the plastic thermometer (probably because it has a large red indicator) and seem fascinated by it. I am also amazed how at just a couple days old they instinctually act just like my adult hens, preening themselves, scratching the ground, backing up and looking down for something to eat, etc. I could swear that they are bigger too. Most are starting to develop their wing feathers.

DAY 6


This morning I found one dead chick. I expect to lose about 5 chicks so this is no surprise, but what is surprising is that we haven't lost any until today. I think its my fault though because I had to go and monkey with things yesterday. I decided to put the heat lamps on a chain so that I can adjust the height easier than with them sitting on the lid, especially when the lid gets opened. Since they seemed to be doing so well and not staying under the lamps very long, I removed the second lamp. It was a really nice warm day too so I opened the window on the shed. Well last night a storm rolled through and I forgot to shut the window, so they probably got too cold and one of them bought the farm. I put the second heat lamp back up this morning.

LESSON LEARNED: Too hot is better than too cold. If the chicks can move away from the heat lamp, leave them alone.

Also they are going through more food now. This morning the feeder was empty. As soon as I filled it all 49 chicks were going like gangbusters trying to eat. I realized that I need another feeder. I added another small feeder until the frenzy was over. I will be buying another large feeder this afternoon, and I guess I need to check and fill the feeder more than once a day.

The chicks are getting much bigger too. The wing feathers are filling in and now I can see tail feathers starting to come in as well. This big guy is a good example.

Brooder Box Build

Here is the brooder box that I built for the chicks to live in for the first 3-4 weeks. The purpose of the brooder is to keep the chicks warm (as a brooding hen would do in nature) with a heat lamp, which will be suspended over the chicken wire lid on the left half of the box. The right side of the box will give the chicks a place to be away from the heat lamp if they get too warm, and will contain a feeder and water jar. The whole box will have about 3" of pine shavings on the floor for the litter. I painted it with Kilz primer for now so that it won't rot or swell and I can clean it out easier.

The materials, dimensions and design were mostly a product of what I had laying around. I wanted to make something that would be completely self contained rather than just a border on the floor. This will allow me to move it if necessary and not have to worry about curious dogs, children, etc.

The one consideration that I had to make was how big to make the box. I determined that 1/2 sq. ft. per chick should be sufficient for the first 4 weeks or so. With 50 chicks that means 25 square feet, which is 5 foot square. I had several pieces of 1/2" OSB about 3' x 6' from window cutouts on a construction job, so I ended up making the box 3' wide, 6' long and 16" deep. That's only 18 square feet so I hope there is enough room by the end of 3 weeks. Hopefully the chicks will feather out quickly.

Notice that I placed close-able vents on the right side of the box for added ventilation. I hinged the cutouts so that they can be closed up if it is too drafty. Again this is the product of what I had laying around. These are some soffit vents that I found in the shed and I have been saving those wooden knobs forever so it was time to use them.

The chicken wire on top of the lids was the leftovers from a 2' wide roll so that dictated the lid cutout to be about 20" (enough to overhang and staple the chicken wire 2" on each side). I didn't have any pieces of OSB left over that were big enough to make the lids out of so, I had to piece it together and put 1x2 pine braces underneath the joints (glued and screwed). Even if they were out of one piece I still probably would have braced it because OSB isn't very strong (and I over build everything, its a disease.)

I did  have to buy all the hinges and some other hardware. Unfortunately nobody seems to make hinges the way I wanted them. My lids lay on top of the box so an inside hinge would not provide enough clearance to open it. The wood is only 1/2"  thick so I couldn't use a piano hinge between the lid and wall without adding additional material to have something to screw it to. The strap hinges that I used work fine on the outside, but the screw holes were too close to the hing point as I needed an extra1/2" to miss the lid. Thus I ended up drilling another whole (for the screw below the empty hole) in each hinge. And the screws that came with the hinges are too long and needed to be replaced with some 1/2" long screws.

My father in his infinite wisdom keeps telling me to "put wheels on it". I keep telling him that it is a "table top" box that doesn't need wheels as it won't ever be on the ground and that it is light enough that I can move it by myself. Well I guess it could just as easily sit on the ground as it does on a table or saw-horses. But now that I have added lids and hardware, it is getting a lot heavier. Add pine shavings and 50 chicks and I think it will become a permanent fixture. Maybe I do need to add legs and/or some wheels. The real question is, where do I store this monstrosity when I am not using it?

[UPDATE]
Okay, so maybe wheels were a good idea. After moving this monstrosity in and out of and all around the garage every time I needed to build some thing in there I decided that dragging it around on saw horses was way worse than admitting defeat and adding some wheels. Since I still want the bottom to be flat I just built a large "movers dolly" for it to ride on. So far it works great.

Here is the finished product (sitting on the wheel dolly) with everything except pine shavings, and chicks.

Freedom Ranger to the Rescue

One thing I hadn't really given much consideration before starting this project was what kind of chicken to raise for meat. So I talked to my chicken raising friends and did some research. Here is what I found out.

I am pretty disgusted with the Cornish-X ("Cornish Cross") hybrid that is typically raised for meat, especially in commercial/industrial farms under deplorable conditions. It's not the chicken's fault, although they act pretty stupid. I read accounts of huge losses days before slaughter because a of a hot spell and the chickens were too fat/dumb/lazy to walk 5 feet to the watering can and died of overheating.

You see the Cornish-X has been bred specifically to grow very large breasts very quickly, in as little as 6 to 8 weeks from hatch to slaughter! This unnaturally rapid growth rate leads to lots of problems, including heart attacks from the inability of the heart to keep up, or weak and broken legs that are unable to support the large breast weight resulting in breast ulcers from dragging on the ground, starvation and overheating and death from inability to reach feed and water. Not to mention cannibalism, aggressive pecking, bruising and broken bones and disease from overcrowding and unsanitary conditions found in most "industrialized" chicken farms. Makes me never want to eat another store bought chicken or at KFC ever again.

Thankfully there are other meat breeds such as the "Freedom Ranger" or "Red Ranger" that grow a little slower (10 to 12 weeks) and thus avoid many of these problems. They are also better suited for pasturing or day-ranging because they are able to walk and forage for themselves. Of course those extra 4 weeks add up to a lot more feed and thus the conversion cost per pound of meat is considerably higher. And the price of day old chicks are 150-200% that of the Cornish-X. But I have heard that the meat is much better tasting, and my pasture will benefit from the grazing and manure, and I can sleep at night knowing that I am helping to promote Sustainable Agricultural Practices and avoid the problems that come with the Cornish-X.

Then there are also the "duel purpose" Heritage breeds such as the Rhode-Island Reds and Plymouth Bardrocks that can be raised for a season (8-12 months) as a laying hen, and then slaughtered for meat. But I already have all the eggs I need and don't really want to wait a full year to get some meat.

Now it is not even the end of February and I was hoping to get my chicks delivered on or about the 1st of March in order to be finished before the real heat comes in June. However, I have discovered that finding local breeders that produce Freedom Rangers are hard to find, and those that do are sold out till April.

LESSON LEARNED: Order your chicks early.

To reduce costs, I went in with a friend and ordered a 100 straight run chicks, 50 a piece, in order to take advantage of bulk pricing (about $1.80/ea.) I will post the supplier and details as soon as I get their contact info. The chicks are expected to arrive about Mid-March which is great considering that everyone else quoted me the end of April.

I have been so excited with plans for the hoop house shelter and finishing the fencing around my 1 acre pasture that I completely neglected to consider where the day old chicks are going to live for the first few weeks. Guess I better start looking into building a brooder box or two big enough for 50 chicks.