I like Meat Chickens so much I’ve gotten 300

Once you lift that first part off to the side, it's first pass.

Wow, look at that one over there!

Look, dipping their beaks. And then put them under the brooder, Mr. Brown. Gideon, you're fine there, just don't move, okay? Because the chicks are going to be all around you. All right, how does it feel to have our 300 chickens? Sea monster coming in.

Feels great.

All right, Nino, so Chicks are coming. Post office just called. We got to get the brooder heated up. You still up here going to get them? Okay. Oh, I don't know, I should ask. Mr. Brown's gonna go with you. Anybody else want to go with your mom? You want to go? Well, you got to get up. Jonah and I will prep it for you guys. Just get your town shoes. Hopefully they're over here. Good morning, Laurel. Yep. Oh my word, they're there. What are you gonna take for your snack? You can take an apple? Here. It's really the only thing we're having to buy at the grocery store these days. Fruit. We're fully stocked on vegetables outside and meat. Rebecca, when does Laurel get free?

I believe tomorrow. I was looking at her wound and it, um, it's looking really good.

For those that don't know, she had had spade surgery. Got the staples out, or got unglued it. Had to get staples. See, look, had to have a lot of rest.

It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

You're so spastic. Oh wow, I don't even see it.

It's right here.

It's healed up nice. Yeah. Bye-bye. Bye.

I love you.

Love you too. Rebecca just left, so that means I've got about 20-ish, 25 minutes to get this brooder heated up and warmed and ready for these chicks. Good morning.

Dishwasher.

Oh, you did? Yeah, good for you, good for you. People are loving the haircuts. People are loving their haircuts.

Yeah, what about the ICs?

Uh, they need to be done too, but can you help me? Let's just make sure we get this going first. Uh, just— we gotta get the heat. I've got the— I got the bedding in. Now let's get these hover brooders going, okay? Let's just get 2 of them going, okay? So do you want to run the line to see if it's working, or me? How about you set up the brooders?

I know it's working.

You do? Yeah. Let's see. It doesn't look like it's working. Well, I think that light broke. Okay, well, let's test it then. Plug one in. One is plugged in. I'm glad it's not working because one's plugged in. You set up the hover brooders. I'm gonna track down this— okay, I'll track down this wire. Johnette always helps if we plug it in. There you go.

This could mess with our butchering dates and everything.

No, it's right on. 3 weeks.

You see our sea monsters? They're tiny.

What Jonas says is true. I've been thinking that our current sea monsters in the field seem a little bit small for 5 weeks. They've got to be harvested in 3 weeks. So what I'm thinking we need to do is get the chart, see where they're supposed to be, weigh a few of them, and see where they're at. Hey, If we're not testing, we're guessing, Jonah. Yeah, it could be that they just pack it on these last 3 weeks. We'll see. How come you like the sea monsters so much?

They grow fast. Ah, and you get to start all over at a lower rate and then—

yeah, just build up.

It's just really fun.

Cool. Okay, well, here's the— here's the power. I know this cord is working because I can hear the Energizer running off of it. Let's get them plugged in and then We got to get this heating up. So here, run this under to me. This needs to go all the way into here. Hold on. Oh, remember I fried that last time?

Remember I fried it, accidentally poured water on it?

Oh gosh. Yeah, but it was working after that.

No, and then we just started—

Okay, is it not lighting up now?

No, no lights up.

Nothing?

Nothing.

Okay. Well, bring that, bring that—

Papa, we fried it.

Here, bring this one out and let's test it straight into the drop cord. Look. It blew the fuse. Oh yeah, okay, uh, let's just do one brooder. There's only 100, they're tiny, um, they can all fit under it. How? Oh, we have another power strip. Is it a power strip?

No, but there's 3 ways.

Does it have multiple things? Okay, just go get it. First, let's see if plugging it in direct— make sure there's nothing wrong with our brooder. Brooder's working. Okay, okay, we're heating them up, Jonah. You might raise them a hair, the one on the left anyway. Okay, they're both working. That's what's most important. They're going to want to be dry. They're stressed out, they've been traveling. They're going to want to be dry and warm first. And then they're gonna want a drink.

That's me. I want to stay warm.

You like to— okay, good. I like how you were able to get that up, but we gotta like get our cords up out of the way too or something.

How do we do it?

Okay, so why don't you put your brooders along this wall? Okay, like put your other brooder along this wall. Yeah, yeah, and then rig your cords up. Okay, see, to get your cords off the ground, you might install a hook or a screw or something where you could hang it, like right here. I'm gonna make some magic water. Oh, they're here! Oh snap, they're here! Okay, tell them I'm coming down with the water. Just give me a second. All right, Jonah done took the water. They get so excited, they get in such a hurry. I wonder who they get that from. You couldn't just put them in the back, huh? You had to carry them on your lap.

They gave us 2 boxes.

That's not normal.

I know, but it's 100 chicks.

I hope we didn't get 200 chicks.

I looked at the packing slip. I took the packing slip out.

I hope not.

It said 100, so— oh, there's none in this one over here. Okay, just spread them out over 2 boxes.

Here you go. Wait, he's got to set up the feed trap. All right, hey, put some mulch around this, Gideon. Yeah, can you set them down?

Somebody— then we have to put them under here, right? Wow, there's another one over there!

Look, dipping their beaks. A lot of them are coming back to it. That's good.

Did you move your leg?

They're so lively. At what, what, they're 2 days old?

Yeah.

Chicks upon arrival haven't had food or water ever, and they can survive 3 days that way. Yeah, but once they have their first drink and bite to eat, they got to keep eating and drinking. I'm gonna get some feed for them. You guys already got your first batch out? Okay, good job. Is that gonna leave me enough room to put the box in?

No, because the chicks—

okay, now you got to be very careful backing up, Gideon. Here, let's put the box over here. Okay, good idea. They're not shipping as many in the box, I guess. Uh, one is under. Okay, this is a Reedy Fork organic feed. We're giving it a try, out of Charlotte, North Carolina. A lot of people ask, what do I feed sea monsters? Well, they only live to be 8 weeks old. 48 days, they're ready to be harvested. We get it by the ton because we use it so much. We're going to actually switch everybody to starter feed higher in protein. Actually, that's alfalfa. We actually get it by the ton because we're doing so much, we use it so much, we're actually switching the entire flock to this. It's higher in protein, doesn't have calcium in it. Our little chicks don't need calcium, roosters don't need calcium. We'll do calcium supplements, um, But that's what— it makes management a little bit easier just to feed the Sea Monster starter the entire time. It's like 20% protein. They're crowding around there now. Oh wow, you got us a load of rooster teeth. Chickens don't have teeth. They put the little tiny rocks in their gizzards and that helps them chew it up. It's a muscle that moves the rocks around and helps them—

I wonder what a chicken muscle looks like—

break down the food, honey.

No, wait, I wonder what a chicken—

oh, it's probably their gizzard. It's probably that big, huh? It's pretty tiny. You know, the one thing they're missing, guys— here's a ton right here. You clean it up around here anyway. Okay, so we just cut them a little bit every day. We got to shred this up.

Papa's done. Inside the little hole.

Okay, good. Thank you. Thanks for this. I ripped it up, put it in there for them. That'll help them. All right, we still got to move the ices and then We still got to move the ICs, and then we'll check the weight of the Cornish Cross out in the field. Where's my rubber mallet? Supposed to be right here.

Was it left out there?

It's possible. Found it! Look, there's the other mallet. I did leave it out here. Okay, they've spread the manure. Grant, we need to go right there, but I didn't get to mow it yesterday because it rained. You need to mow it before you set up this net, and I need to not have this net in the way when I mow it. So I'm gonna see if I can't just move them further into this pasture. Look, they've spread this Splendid. Remember yesterday we looked at it, showed you the maggots in it? Yeah, we we timed this perfect because the cows were in this paddock for 2 days. But the chickens can't cover the entire paddock with this net, so think about just moving right here. We'll still get some action turning manure and getting some fly larvae. All right, all we got to do now is move them up there. The fence is there. This is the tricky part. Let's drop them down. Free the birds! Let's just leave the rubber mallet out here just so we won't have to carry it. Put it by the Energizer, turn it on, we're ready to go. There's the ICs, here's the pigs. Here we go, fellas! Hey guys, you're doing it! Look, this is where we set the water yesterday and they've already started to work more around it. I like it, my three little foresters. Someone said in the comments yesterday we're putting pigs in a whole new light for them. I hope so. They don't have to stink and they don't have to only be for meat. Which is two pretty popular misconceptions. They love to work and they love a clean environment. Guys, we're going right back out. All right, the University of Kentucky study— I'll link that down below— says 5-week-old broiler chicken should be about 3.2 pounds. 2.4-week-old weight is, uh, 2.26. 6, 2.2, 3.2. That seems still pretty small. They're gonna double, so that might make sense. They might be that. All right, if I'm going out there, I might as well— and I'm taking a bucket to weigh them in— might as well take a load of feed. Okay, this feeder, I never— maybe a few times I've seen them See, like, it's always got some room here. They're not ever like crowding it, crowding it. So part of me wonders, is this enough feeders? You probably need to get another feeder out here. And there's some on the ground. They're not going crazy for it. We've been doing the auto feeder this time just because it's a lot easier than soaking, carrying buckets out here. We do save a bit when we soak it, but with everything that's going on Okay guys, are you 3.2 pounds? I'm just gonna randomly grab one. Grab two. Let's weigh at least three, huh? They're underweight. Two, two pounds, 10 ounces. Maybe I need a firm surface, flat surface. Okay, 2 pounds, 3 ounces. Next. 2 pounds 6 ounces. You grab a couple more for me, Josiah? Can you grab it? There you go. Okay, and put it in there. That looks like a big one. 2 pounds 10 ounces. So they're hailing on the small scale of that. Yeah, look, okay, so there's still room for people if they want to come in and eat, and there's food here, but they're not wanting to eat it off the ground. I see a juice in my near future.

You do?

Okay, gonna go down to the office for a little bit. How's your eye, Mustang? Not that eye, the other eye. It's looking better, it's looking better. It's not running anymore. Here, put me a scoop in this, please. Big old scoop.

I'll get it out of here.

That's hard for you to get at, isn't it? The good news is I haven't heard Stud cough this morning. It's usually when he moves, so I have to ask Jonah if he did. It's vitamin C, apple cider vinegar. Did you go get the cows with Jonah? Can you go find Jonah for me? I gotta ask him a question. And XL 7000. Don't tip it up. No, don't tip it up. He doesn't like the, uh You're gonna spill it. Now it's your turn, Jonah. Um, how was Stud this morning? Did he cough?

I couldn't find him and then I heard him cough, but he was like—

How many times did he cough on his way down here?

None.

None? He coughed none times on the way down here?

Uh, well, he coughed when he was standing still and I found him. Okay, so I found him.

So you've heard him cough one time this morning?

Yes.

Okay, well, that's better than the 10. Guys, come on with the colloidal silver sprays, please. You're not gonna take it? That's probably a good sign. Stud has had this cough that, uh, you know, I asked Josh at Our Father's Farm— he's my cow guy— he said you probably don't have to worry about it, it's just the change in the weather. We did treat him with Animal Synergy products morning and night, and then apple cider vinegar, cup and a half a day, and some vitamin C. He's been eating it until now. So does that mean you're better? Does that mean you're better? Flossie has got a red eye. Look, she's She had been closing it when she was eating. She's keeping it open now, and it doesn't seem as runny. Same thing, apple cider vinegar, a cup and a half. Usually just do a half a cup a day maintenance, but when it's acute like this, cup and a half. And then you want to do that? Yeah, you got to get real close. Colloidal silver in the eye, and it's that eye. And it's been working. Round 1, show them what we got, Jonah.

None.

Boom! Good, a good gallon and a half easy. All right, you go take that up. I'll switch them out. See if my juice is ready, buddy. Will you bring it down?

Sure.

All right, come on, sweetie. Come on. Hey, come on, come on. Stud, hey, you ate some of it. You ate a lot of it. Only a little bit of spill. Yay, it's ready! Yeah, has it been ready? That's probably from our cucumbers too, huh? It is nice. Let me get out of your way. Round 2 candy candy. Yeah, she's lots of candy. 20 pounds of candy there, Phyllis. Thank you. And she just, uh, urine too. And that's only about half of it, guys. Okay, now hold on, where's our scrap wheelbarrow? You go get it.

That's our nice wheelbarrow.

Here's Stud's cough. Oh, oh, that's— hey, 4 times. Will you go get the wheelbarrow, please? Y'all know what we're doing with that candy pie, right? Yeah, pigs love it. What to do with this urine? Let's dilute it.

Candy truck coming through.

Okay, you load it up, I'll be there in a second. Although Mama's transplants are doing pretty good, we'll give them a little bit of a boost.

Manure water. I threw the manure in and water splatted out.

Okay, look, you got some on your face too, so go have Mom help you clean up.

Okay, I'm gonna take a shower.

Take your clothes, take a shower. Wipe your face off though first thing before it runs down into your eyes or mouth. If that splashed him, he's probably standing right here. Probably got some in our milk. I'm gonna say yes, yes, we did get some in our milk. When in doubt, throw it out. But it's no loss, the pigs will love it. Josiah, can you go get me the reservoir bucket please? We wouldn't have to worry about that if we had the reservoir and had a lid on it. It rained last night, there's tons of liquid in there.

Hey Papa!

Hey buddy! So now I have a reservoir bucket. With a lid. Looks like we're starting over from scratch. Probably lost 3/4 of a gallon. Clean it out into the reservoir and let's finish her off. How did you enjoy your juice this morning?

It was delicious.

Now that was our cucumbers, right?

It was our cucumbers and our mint.

What?

It was not our lemon or pineapple.

Never will be.

We can't grow this.

All right, got to count on the community somewhere, right?

Exactly.

Breakfast is ready, but we got to get these cows out.

You said—

watch, watch, watch Bessie. Let her be, let her be. I want to show them her eating the— look, she's eating the underbrush including poison ivy. Watch, watch, Jonah. Let her be. Yes, look! Yes, yes! Yes. Okay, how about to speed up this foresting process with the pigs, what if we ran these guys in first and you guys got some of the higher up stuff? What do you think about that idea, Jonah? You want to run the cows ahead of the pigs tomorrow for just a couple of hours? It won't take long. We'll encompass them in the smaller area, give them a couple hours and then put them back out here this afternoon. Jason from So the Land is back working on the pig port because, Jason, it leaked right about here and then maybe right there. Not crazy like it was, so we're getting somewhere, right? I see you already done some work. Yeah, just— what's the idea?

I think, you know, I think it's just kind of uneven. And so, uh, I just dropped the front here. Even the little bit amount that it dropped, then the water started coming out.

Really?

So I think it was a little bit pulling up, up top. Yeah, because maybe it's like the ground's uneven, or— okay, this side was more up than down.

Okay. Yeah, these are probably designed for flat concrete paddocks, and you just dug, gosh, probably 6 inches right there, and it went down.

Yeah.

And do you think that that'll keep the water from pooling? And then you cocked it?

Yeah, I cocked it some more.

So rain comes here and then it falls right here, right? So it falls off this roof right into the edge of their pen. See how it's moist right there? What do you think about a gutter? Yeah, would that be crazy? A gutter, have the water coming out.

Yeah, I would think it'd have to come underneath this.

It would have to mount underneath this, right?

I wonder if you could just drill it into here. Yeah, and then drill it on the other side and then drill it into here.

Yeah, like tuck it in.

That would be enough.

Yeah. Hey, does it smell?

No, it doesn't.

Still doesn't smell. No, no, and I've been feeding them cow manure and it still doesn't smell. Smells good. They keep it nice and tidy, guys. Good job. Jason's gonna come back. We're gonna put gutters on both sides. Just one extra effort to keep water out of there. That's the key to that system is keeping it dry. This afternoon, Jenna and I piled more mulch up underneath our shed. Hopefully, Jonah, we're gonna get this fixed soon. Hey, look who doesn't have cough. Good job, buddy, bucking it. And he's bred you. That's gonna be a phenomenal calf because she's kicking her little eye problem too. Look, eyes wide open, still a little red. Looks like mom's got them. Hauling sandbags. She direct seeded both these plots. That's 2,400 square foot gardening right there, Rebecca. Another 2,400, almost 5,000 square feet of gardening. And that's not enough for you, huh? You're pulling off one more. This one's ready, it just needs to be uncovered. This one we're gonna have to get Casey and work it. Rebecca, do you need me here, or can I go mow the cow plot?

Okay, go down there, get that out from underneath that thing.

Okay. What I did with another tarp is I started at this end and just lifted it up and walked that way with it, and the water ran over each bed. Let me, let me put this down and I can help you. All right, happy planting. If we leave now, we can get that mowed before time to go in. Gideon, where's your earmuffs? Everybody's got to have earmuffs. There's one earmuff. There's two. Oh my, my lucky day.

Um, if you want to figure out if your hen is done being broody, you could grab one of the chicks.

Okay.

And just like show it to the hen. She'll get very angry outside.

So shall we try it on this, this chicken with our guineas? Look, all of them lived.

Yeah, they're fast. They are very fast. Set it down, set it down quick. Now watch.

Yeah, she's really puffed up, bless her heart. All right, give them back.