Get Started Homesteading: Raising Starter Chicks

I bet raising your own chickens has crossed your mind a time or two (or maybe it hasn’t). Have you thought about it and wondered how hard it would be or if it was worth it? Want the inside scoop? I am so very pleased by the chickens that we have raised up from chicks. They grow up to be happier, healthier and tend to lay more eggs. We are currently raising our 8th round of chicks. So this comes with quite a bit of experience and wonderful memories behind it.

This is going to be a long post so it may be best to pin it for later referencing.

Benefits of Raising Chickens from Starter Chicks

• Delicious, homegrown eggs and meat
• Pride in self sufficiency and sustainability
• You know exactly how they have been fed and raised
• Your family and friends will love getting your extra eggs
• You can sell your extra eggs $$Cha-ching$$
• Chickens raised organically in a free range, foraging environment will grow healthier and produce more nutritious eggs and meat
• Pets for your children that serve a purpose

Chick Selection (Breeds and More)

The local feed store that we buy the starter chicks from are already separated out into pullets and cockerels. If the chicks are not separated out you will have to separate them out when they get 3 to 8 weeks old. Since I am not very good at sexing chickens I tend to leave that to the professionals and buy them pre-sexed.

If you are raising the chicks for egg production you will want to choose chicken breeds that will have a high egg production rate.

Some of the breeds we choose are:

• Australorp
• Buff Orpington
• Delaware
• Plymouth Rock
• Rhode Islands

If you are raising the chicks for meat you will want to choose chicken breeds that will mature quickly.
So far we have only raised Cornish Hens for meat.

To select the breed that will work well for you, do some research. Some things to consider when researching are:

• Egg production rate
• Suitable for meat production
• Foragers well for food
• Climate tolerant
• Temperament

Brooder Set-Up

• 1-50 gallon rubbermaid tub (this is what we use and love, you can use something you have on had that will contain them but still have enough space which we will talk about later)
• Newspaper (hand shredded for the bedding)- other options are a bale of grasses, or wood chips (make sure they are not chemically treated or dyed)
• 1-2 water bases& plastic jars(you can use a mason jar in place of a plastic jar)
• 1 Chick feeder tray & slide top
• 1-2 Brooder (heat) lamps& bulbs
• Room thermometer

Brooder Space

Depending on how many chicks you are raising you may need a larger tub or a second tub. You will need about 6 square inches of space per chick.

They will need to move into larger living quarters if:

• They have little room to spread out and exercise or sleep
• The brooder floor gets dirtier faster than you can keep it clean
• They run out of feed and water too quickly

Brooder Temperature

We use the red bulbs because they emit gentle heat and can stay on all the time without disturbing the chicks sleeping patterns.

Set up the brooding area in advance and get the temperature around 95 degrees Fahrenheit. You may have to play around with the height/distance of the brooding lamp to get the desired temperature. We keep our brooding area in the garage so that there is a more stable temperature for the chicks.
Once the chicks are in the brooder you can reduce the temperature by about 5 degrees each week until the brooder is at ambient temperature.

Happy chicks that are warm and cozy will wander freely throughout the brooder area.
Chicks that aren't warm enough will crowd or huddle near the brooder lamp and may peep loudly, have sticky bottoms or diarrhea.

Chicks that are too warm will sprawl out all over the brooding area trying to get away from the brooder lamp. They may start panting as well.

Food and Water

We use the slide top with holes to prevent the chicks from scattering, sleeping in or pooping in their food.

Chicks need food and water at all times. For food we use chick starter crumbles. We keep 1-2 water jars in the brooder. Keeping the water at one end and the food at another will help keep the chicks active. Each chick will typically eat around 10 pounds of feed during its first 10 weeks of life.

Some reasons to use a medicated chick starter feed is if you raise the chicks in:

• warm or humid weather
• large quantities of chicks at a time
• the same brooder for more than 3 weeks
• the same brooder one batch after another
• an unsanitary area

**I always recommend using a non-medicated, GMO-free, organic chick starter feed though.

Brooder Maintenance

Once you get it all set up you will have to do some maintaining. The most obvious thing to maintain are food and water. These 2 things must never run out. One of the other things to watch for is brooder cleanliness. 1-2 times a week you will need to change out the bedding. It may require changing more frequently the older they get.

Length of Time in Brooder

It is not recommended to put the chicks in the coop with other chickens until their feathers come in and they are no longer fuzzy. By moving them in too soon you can create an unwelcoming environment for the young chicks. The chickens may try to pick the fuzz off of the younger chicks by pecking at them. Once the chickens start pecking they might not stop and it could take a turn for the worse. Once they have been moved you want to observe the interactions between the chickens to ensure bad behavior is not a problem.
If you are not placing them in with older chickens you can move them into the coop sooner.


**Let us know you like this post by sharing it with your friends.

**Do you have questions? Post them below!

**Do you have a favorite breed of chicken or different set-up? We would love to hear your comments and input in the comments below.

~Heather

Get Started Homesteading: March Goodies

Welcome to our "Homesteading" series where we'll all be walking through monthly tasks and guides towards self sufficiency and homesteading!

In case you've missed our earlier posts you can find them HERE and HERE

Let's get started!
March came in roaring like a lion and I don't know about you, but it definitely added to the excitement factor for this years' adventures. I love the storms and the feeling of the earth crackling with the life it's soon to bear.

The ground is starting to warm up, so now is the time to get some dirt under our nails. (Finally!)

For The Home

I hope ALL of you already have this done, but in case it needs to be said:

• Make a budget

I COULD make an entire post on this topic alone. However, I'll just leave a few "seeds" for you to handle. Debt is BAD, always. Don't buy something unless you have the cash to buy it with, period.
Make sure that whatever you do buy is quality. We've learned the hard way in this area. We didn't want to wait until we had enough cash saved, but we didn't want to use a card either...so we bought the cheapest version of X we could find. Typically it started falling apart shortly after. "Buy nice or buy twice." is the saying my husband and I have tried to adopt into our mindsets, and it's helped us in more ways than one!

For The Garden

• Start Seeds Indoors

Depending on what exactly it is and what your weather/garden beds have been like, you may want to get started on establishing a few of you crops indoors.
A few things to consider are a grow light or standard shop light, some good potting soil, plastic wrap and patience. Here's where you can start to really get to know your plants so take some time to learn who to start them. Or is you should start them indoors at all. Some plants are finicky about being moved around.

• Plant in your garden!

Again, this will depend on the recent weather and the crop you're hoping to plant. Take time to get to know each plant and their profile.
Another thing to consider is raised beds are warmer sooner than mounded beds.
There are tons of unique styles and ways of gardening, Raised, mounded, green manure, row covers, worm beds, succession gardening, germination, companion planting etc.) It can make your head spin, and it can stop you from doing anything at all.
Don't let the fear of failure keep you from moving. Gardening isn't a place for perfection. It's a place of trial, error, testing and continuously learning. Embrace the processes. I've heard it said that "No failure, is actually a failure on gardening." It's new wisdom and experience.

For the Kitchen

• Get started on your Preservation Game Plan

Simply put, what are you planting? What do you want to preserve? When does it ripen?
Again this will take knowing your plants, planting them at a good time, and a lot of watchful patience. Do you have canning jars? If not, now would be a good time to start collecting!

This acts as a basic outline that should be broad enough for everyone to use rather than going into basics for each specific plant anyone may have decided to plant that year! We live in the information age, and it's still free! (For now.)

Until next time, Enjoy the Journey!

~Abbey

Old Traditions New Beginnings

I've heard it said that my generation is where traditions go to die.

That's depressing but when I take a look around, it's equally accurate.
We're great at making friends online, pinning the wardrobe we'll never have, recipes we'll never make and DIY's we may or may not ever attempt.

If there was an award granted for the generation composed of the biggest consumers, there'd be no competition.
Yeah, let's get a standing ovation for the biggest consumers in history!

Wait.

If you're still long enough, you'll see this isn't really what any of us want.
There's a lot of passion to be more, and create. But we lack the wisdom.
The good ol' fashioned mentoring.  Somewhere along the family branches of this huge old tree we never learned to sew a button, grow our own strawberries and make it into a jam to share with our loved ones.
Granted, that's a general statement. There are a very select few who are well equipped with the traditional skills of self-sufficiency and sustainability.

We've grown up relying on "them" to provide for us. Everything.
The shiny white tiles, and glass-door coolers have replaced the face to face relationship, and the smell of fresh harvest.
We purchase the clearanced "Bed-in-a-bag" instead of wrapping up in a blanket made with time, and careful consideration.
Swipe a card at the window and get a sack of food instead of stepping into the yard and pulling a few more goodies from the earth in the late afternoon.

This is where the wheel stops spinning. 

The rat wheel, the Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, the dizzying array of stores.

We put on the breaks.

We started off as friends and sisters.
The girl who makes the soap, the one who married the farmer, the neat freak, the crafty queen, the photographer. All with different talents, perspectives and backgrounds... (about us)

With a common desire

The desire to be self-sufficient. To be able to create with purpose, using our hands. To be intentional.
We want to know how to grow our own food, sew our own clothes, can, knit....and share shameless amounts of food and laughs while our kids run amok in the yard.

We're building something from the ground up. We're all going to learn by doing.
This is where we'll document our journey, and share our memories and knowledge with others who are seeking intentional living. We're going to come along side each other, ask a million questions, get our hands dirty, and DO. Though we may not be able to share tea around the kitchen table with you, we'll know you're out in the yard planting by the same seasons we are.

-Abbey

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