Chick Season 2018

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It’s chick season at The Cram Farm!

These 2 day old puff balls arrived this morning in a small box a-chirping.  Every time we receive new chicks they remind me of the episode of ‘I Love Lucy’ when Lucy and Ethel buy a bunch of chicks and try to keep them warm in their house by turning the central heater way up.  At some point the chicks get loose and Lucy tries to corral them by imitating a mother hen and leading them back to their coop.  And Ethel was right, they do sound like Fred Mertz, “Cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap!”

Thankfully, we don’t have to corral our chicks since they’re safe and warm in a brooder with plenty of food and water.  So far, they all look healthy.  We will keep these 50 chicks in the brooder for approximately 2 weeks and then move them outside to a couple chicken tractors, which will be moved daily so they always have access to fresh grass and bugs.  They’ll live a happy little chicken life for 8-10 weeks at which point they will need to go to freezer camp.  The Cornish Cross chickens are a fast growing meat bird, so at 8-10 weeks they will be large and ready to process.  Our goal in this is to provide ourselves with quality, grass-fed meat.  God has blessed us with a place where we have the capacity to do so.  In the meantime, we’re going to enjoy the fuzzy cuteness and the sounds of chirping as we raise them and provide them with an enjoyable life.