Babies everywhere

We got our first batch of this year's chicks about 5 weeks ago. They are four breeds of layers: Ameraucanas, Blue Andalusians, Rhode Island Reds, and Cuckoo Marans. We started the 75 chicks inside Chris' shop on pine shavings and moved them outside to movable pens at about two weeks of age, which was just in time for our batch of 100 broilers. We are also raising turkeys this year, so we have a dozen turkey poults as well. The kids have really been enjoying them but due to some unanticipated setbacks we have really been scrambling to get the pens built faster than they outgrow them!





Here are Chris and a couple of friends working on one of the small pens which is designed for young chicks on pasture. We'll use it to isolate roosters or breeding pairs later. We used half inch hardware cloth to protect the chicks from raccoons, which can reach through regular chicken wire.