The chicks the morning after their first night in the chicken tractor. A few of them still wanted the heat lamp, but the others were happy on their own in the 70° warmth overnight.
About noon, we went out and moved the chicken tractor. You can tell how much grass the chicks ate in one day! We could tell it, too, in the amount of feed we had to give them. Before, when they were in the brooder house, we were giving them 2 large cans (empty 28 oz. tomato cans) of feed in the morning, 2 more at noon, and 2 more in the early evening--and they were eating it all. In the chicken tractor, 2 cans lasted them for 24 hours!
In addition to the grass, they ate bugs. I got lucky catching this picture of Wren (one of my Ameraucana pullets) with a bug in her beak.
And while the chicks mowed the grass and de-bugged it, they were busy fertilizing it, too!
This is pastured poultry in a nutshell!
Wow! They are so big already. Will we be eating Coq au vin too?
ReplyDeleteMaybe! We were counting today, and it seems we have about 2/3 cockerels and only 1/3 pullets. So much for a "straight run!"
ReplyDelete