Oliver and a hen share supper
It’s sometimes a juggling act, having full-time jobs and a farm and 3 kids. But sometimes, like tonight, it all works out. The girls get home from school at 3:30. Matt had left instructions for them to go out and get all the hogs fed right away. He gets off work at 4:00, so when he got home he got the cattle fed and then they went out to the pasture to load up the chickens. I work until 5:00, and just as I was finishing up they pulled back up to the house ready to go.
We headed to Greene, arriving about 6:00. Got the chickens unloaded and then headed for Charles City. Dropped Madeline off at her dance class, got some supper, got some groceries, picked Madeline up from dance class, and headed home. Whew! Wish things worked like that, like clockwork, all the time.
We didn’t end up losing any to the heat. Yeah! So just tonight left for me to fret about them. They should be ready to pick up around 9:30 tomorrow morning.
The final count was 111, out of 128 started. Not my best numbers ever, but okay. Lost 1 in the brooder, 5 in a rainstorm, 4 one night when we shut them in the shed to protect them from the owl and they overheated, 5 to the owl, and 2 with bad legs. 91 are already spoken for, so that leaves me with only 20 extra’s to sell. In case you’re interested 🙂
We always learn something, each and every batch. What did we learn this time? Having the tarp up is imperative. Once we had it up, no more owl problems. I think moving the pen farther away from the tree line helped a lot, too.
Patti asked if our laying hens take the heat better than the broilers. The answer to that is yes, we never lose layers to heat unless they decide to sit on a clutch of eggs underneath a hay tarp.
Chicken Mama asked if we’re raising the Cornish Cross. And the answer to that is yes, too. Despite the problems you can run into with them, I’m still very pleased with the end result and we seem to have a lot of happy customers. And maybe I just enjoy the challenge 🙂
