31 Oct 2004
The Chicken Cloud

For those readers who've ever wondered what 200 meat chickens and 26 laying hens (they're the colored birds in the foreground) looked like, we offer this photo, taken by Kris this morning when we had just opened the barn door to let the chickens run ... note that all of them had poured out of the door with the link gate just moments before this photo was snapped. I'm heading into the coop to refill the water and put down some feed. It's tough to walk thru this madness - they not only obstruct your feet, but will fly into you as well (note the bird on the wing over the main body of the flock, between me and the camara).

We lost two more meat birds Thursday to drowning - the stock tank got'em again, and we have since placed concrete blocks in it to at least give them a chance to get out when they fall in. Although I'm pretty sure it's pointless. Stupid chickens. And I had to kill another this morning: he (or she?) had overeaten to the point where it was unable to move, and was slowly being pecked to death by the others. We don't de-beak our chicks like some commercial operations do, because we feel it's an un-necessary cruelty and completely unnatural to boot. But if a bird goes down, the others have no mercy. Sad, in a sense, but it was completely out of the question to try to salvage it, as I won't take a sick bird to slaughter, and this one was most definitely sick. And I really don't want the others to learn to eat chicken - cannibalism can be real problem in a flock, even a free range one, although it more generally happens in confined birds, which is why they're frequently de-beaked.

That put's the total for this run at exactly 200 birds: which is great. Not a single meat bird has been lost to predators this time, and I think we've finally got that problem licked. However, it's forced a recalculation on the amount of feed required - I was only expecting to have around 180 at this point, and those extra twenty eat plenty.

But Tuesday's coming: I'll go vote in the morning and give the meat birds their last meal mid-afternoon. And by Wednesday afternoon they'll all be in my freezers. Little bastards! But tasty!

And then next March we start all over again ...

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