(no subject)
So, I now have chickens... okay, I have been meaning to post this for three weeks now, but work and other obligations have kept all else at bay. The plan was to get several for eventual egg layers and maybe 10 of them for meat. To that end we got 6 Road Island Reds and 10 Cornish Cross. The Reds were the clearly more intelligent birds from the start. They now run all over the Cornish Cross birds, quite literally. Just walking across the brooder cage from one bird to the next. It is also astounding how big the Cornish Cross are by comparison to the Reds. They must be easily five times the size of the Reds. After only three and a half weeks the Cornish look almost big enough to slaugher already... I can only imagine how big they will be by the 8 weeks they are supposed to be when they reach slaughtering age. Needless to say, I REALLY need to get the larger chicken house built this weekend. I still have then in a brooder at the moment, but they have completely run out of room.
Fun, fun...
The intent is to have a chicken house that can be moved around the yard as suggested by Joel Salatin's book Pasture Poutry. And the "Chicken Tractor" book as well.
We will have to see how it goes...