a broiler chick takes flight
The broiler chicks have taken over my attached garage with heated floor. Not that they need the heat this time of year, but still, my garage sure makes them a luxury brooder.
Truth be told, I like having them right here close where I can dote over them the first few weeks. And with the spring batch I do every April, that heated floor comes in handy when the weather is cold and damp.
But this week they broke down the chicken wire fence that was supposed to keep them contained, and now all 127 broiler chicks (lost 1 last week) plus Chuck have taken over every corner of my garage. We got their pasture area fenced off last night, but their electric net fencing wasn’t heating up. Their fencing hooks into the electric fence that runs the perimeter of the cow pasture. There’s a short somewhere in that perimeter electric fence, so Matt has to fix that before we can move them out there.
Hopefully tomorrow night…I’m ready to have my garage back.
It’s going to be an interesting move this time. The procedure is that we back the livestock trailer up to the garage, open the garage door, then pick each one up out of the pen and place it in the trailer. But with them free-ranging in the garage I haven’t figured out how we’re going to have the garage door open to load them out, without them running out the door all over the place. The kids are pretty good chicken wranglers, so I’m sure we’ll manage.
If nothing else it should be a good photo opp!
nice photo, we keep our broilers in the garage when they are young also. i don’t really care for the smell that lingers even after they leave. our timing went a little better this year. because of the warmer temperatures we got them out to their mini outdoor pen within two weeks. now they are excellent foragers. when we move the coop/chicken-tractor and feed them at the same time they go crazy after the new bugs and plants underfoot and eventually go after the refilled feeders. our scale is merely 25ish at a time i can’t imagine killing, plucking and eviscerating 127. i’d be happy to hear of any time-saving secrets.
his feet are so huge! reminds me of one of a photo of an eagle coming to a landing on a branch… except it’s a chicken…love it!
Yikes! What a picture!! That’s great and sorry for your loss. The loss of your garage, that is. 🙂
Karl – my biggest time-saving secret? Hire someone else to do it! j/k But we do have to have ours butchered in a state inspected facility in order to sell them, so I’ve only ever butchered 3 chickens myself.