Raising Chickens for Meat: Week 3 of 8, Move Chicks to Pasture 

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SDM Arcugos yeah it’s a picture background 😅

That's the goal Cheriette, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for following along.

That's coming in the next video Jef, just you wait. It's pretty fun.

Thanks for the nice comment Jon. Glad to hear you'll be raising chicks soon!

I think that's a great idea is what I think.

I'll work on that with the feed numbers. By the end of this I will also have a breakdown of inputs and such.

I have a mix of grass. It's whatever grows locally and I have to do the least work to maintain. Because you know, I'm horribly lazy. I maintain it with animals and the bush hog on my tractor.

I don't remember exactly where. For quality and price currently I'd go through farmmarketingsolutions.com/premier I like their crates.

Thanks for following along Dave, and I see what you did there. Out-standing in the field, haha! 1. Yes, I did. Video coming this fall when I can concentrate back on equipment. Has a removable screen and a refrigerator cleaning brush. 2. I have them separate to illustrate a point. It can be done for home or it can be scaled up and I'm doing both successfully. That's really all, it's a video project thing. I don't always do that.

I just searched around online at the time and got a good deal because I bought a bunch. I really like the crates from Premier. farmmarketingsolutions.com/premier They have two doors on them which would make this task way easier. They're also decently priced for what's out on the market now.

Thanks much John, I appreciate your reply. Blessings.

I have fox, skunk, fischer cat, bobcat, bear, coyote, and neighborhood dogs. I'm holding strong with my defenses.

If I remember right from a Joel salatin video he said something like you should let the grass rest 90 days before going over it again.

Bailie Marrero I think his brooder is an approx 8x8 shed, maybe a little bigger. I have seen a similar set up in person with the same # of chicks. It works!

That's good to hear. I'm doing more research on the leg issue thing. It's sad to see in the birds when it happens. Sometimes there's a fix and sometimes there isn't.

I'm shopping around hatcheries. Not that there was anything wrong with my current, I just want to find one closer to home. Without a trusted source currently I hesitate to recommend anyone. That's a topic I'm sure I'll talk about this winter.

Awesomeness. I chuckled at the comment because I've been watching some political videos and the similarities are uncanny XD! Thanks John!

He said he uses a shovel to scoop under their waterer because it gets extra messy, but other than that, he just adds more shavings on top when it starts getting bad

That was just the total that I've fed them to date. I'll run through feed conversion in future videos.

Found your video: "Storing chicken tractors over winter"

I brood the chicks until about 21 days. By that time they have enough feathers and I've worked to mimmic the outside temp in my brooder so that when I put them out they are not shocked by the temperature change. It can really depend on what the average temps are in your area and how well you have done in the chicken brooder.

John Suscovich thank you for answering my question. I live in western Washington State. Your advice sounds like you start to turn off their heat lamp at a certain times to start getting them acclimated to the outside temps before officially putting them out to pasture. I currently have a chicken tractor that I used for my brooder. It has a lockable door to the run that we open when they are little bigger so they have the option of going out to the grass or staying in the warm Coop area. It sounds like I have a pretty good start already and then when they get a little bigger I can put them in a bigger chicken tractor like pen. this will be my first time raising meat chickens and I will not be doing it on a scale like you do but I really appreciate you showing an example for the backyard Homesteader. I plan on purchasing your book here soon to get to work on the bigger tractor. I like your design better than the average design that a lot of other people tend to do. it seems like your design has more Mobility and it's easier to access in case you need to get into the pen for whatever reason. Thank you for sharing your ideas and experiences I really appreciate it and I feel more confident that I will be able to raise my first meat chicken successfully. 😊

If you are in a non-brittle area and plants grow back "easily" then some chicken scratching and impact is a good thing. That can get rid of thatch, add nutrients right into the ground, fluff up the soil a bit, and do other great stuff. I do try to keep the birds well fed as I'm growing them for meat and I want them to grow up and get out. The aggression around the feeder can also lead to scratches on your birds as they fight each other to get to feed which messes up the quality of their skin.

You can give chicks medicated feed at the beginning should you choose to combat coccidiosis. What I do is management. I do use medicated feed. Coccidia thrive in warm moist environments. I make sure to keep my feeders and waterers clean, I use fresh shavings in the brooder and turn the shavings to keep them from getting wet and compacted, and I make sure that the birds always have full feed and water while they are growing so they are healthy and strong. Give you birds a clean dry well ventilated environment and you shouldn't have a problem.

healthy chicks = happy chickens = healthy people

I give them up to nature. I've buried them in the compost pile before and they just get dug out. I throw them into my hedge rows and the local wildlife eats them.

Great question Guillaume. I'll cover that in a future video. But in short I calculate up all my costs including labor and then try to factor in a decent margin for me as the farmer. I then also research what chicken is selling for in my area to see what people are willing to pay. There's a balance to all of those factors.

2100 square feet for a 60 square foot tractor to move 35 times.

Thanks! Would it be too intensive to use the same grass twice in a season year over year?

​@@devingoulding3200 I think I saw a Joel salatin video once where he said to let the land rest 90 days before going over it again

10:00 he talks about 1 crate of 30 birds per tractor

+HLHaidysh perfect thanks.

30 chickens per tractor, about 2 ft square per bird

+John Suscovich thanks

I always thought it was bad idea am into more organic free ranging. This is the comment I was looking for sorry for lost chicks.

They are available here. www.premier1supplies.com/c/poultry_supplies/poultry_restraint_and_transport If you buy over $100 worth of stuff they ship free. No I don't work for them but meeting John and watching his videos I now buy almost all my supplies from them. Great company!

They are commercial. I like the link that Joseph put below. farmmarketingsolutions.com/premier They have decently priced crates on that site.

A vaccine isn't like an antibiotic, etc. It actually causes an immune response that would naturally happen anyway in the birds once exposed to Mareks or any other virus. The difference being it's safer for the birds with the vaccine since it's an 'dead' strain of the virus. I'm running my first trial run on my small farm of chickens and made the mistake of not getting them vaccinated. I've had 10 birds out of 27 die so far from what I now firmly believe is Mareks. Sending birds out to be tested to be sure but I will forevermore have them vaccinated. As Ethan says in the beginning farmer podcast...that was my hard lesson learned.

Okay, thank you for that. So it is not present in their bodies when consumed by people? Are there studies out there regarding this? I have not heard of this before and was thinking of raising a flock of my own.

Naked Hog is right. It causes an immune response and it's not really "in" their bodies when people eat them. Completely safe for people.