MY 100 Chick Plan to replace these Old Lady Hens

Good morning, ladies. How y'all doing? The problem is these ladies are getting old, and what happens when you're a hen when you get old is you slow down in egg production. They'll lay a little bit later as it's cleaning out the, the nest box, but their egg production can get dropped as much as 50%. You know, they get older, their body doesn't work as good. They can randomly die. One of the major problems with growing old and losing egg production is they still eat the same, maybe even more. And some of these chickens, like this one and this, this Black Australorp, Rhode Island Red, go all the way back to Permaculture Chickens. They're like 5 years old. It's 2 and a half years old you're supposed to cull. A chicken. That's when they can drop drastically in their egg production. Now come on, we're gonna have to save a couple of the permaculture chickens, you know, that in my first film— these guys were in my first film. You guys are stars. So what are we going to do about this? Well, we're getting new layer chicks. 100. 100 chicks today. Why 100? Well, 50 of them are going to be males, theoretically. Let's replace this flock. Let's put 50-ish in here, 40 or 50. So what are we going to do about this? Well, we're getting 100 layer chicks today. They could call any minute. They could be calling right now. Supposed to arrive by 3. Let's hope it doesn't come tomorrow. They'd be stressed out. Once the chicks grow up and start laying in the fall, time to turn these guys into delicious, healthy meat stock. Let's go set up the chicks now. What are you guys doing?

We're letting the chicks free range. Yeah, guys, back up. I want to see it. They're going under her, ain't they?

That is Jonah's broody hen raising a couple of Icelandics.

Can I have one? No.

Yep, and those will go out into the pasture following the cows with the other guys. And there's more hatching inside.

Look, that one's not dying.

There's one hatched. Oh yeah, these things are— these little icy chicks are adorable.

Yeah, they are until they poop on you.

There's something special about a mama and her chicks. All right, we don't have too much to do, but we only— we do only have 45 minutes. Let's go ahead and put the petition in. Because this is made for 100 over here, 100 over here, and sea monsters will come while these guys are still in here. So let's get our wall just—

uh, they wonder what— well, how is it gonna get warm?

Uh, well, we have hoverers now. Oh yeah, you'll see those in a second. It's just pretty heavy and hard to carry because there's really nothing to grip. Just how you're gonna take the brunt of the weight right there. If you get towards the end, it'll be lighter. I'll try to grab closer. You got it? Lift up. Lift it all the way up. You guys got it?

Yeah.

Now I can get a little closer to you to take some weight off. Okay, let's go. Let's make sure our door can open. Yep.

So why are we dividing this on this place where we keep the chicks from one section to the other?

Into two sections.

One side is gonna be for layer chickens.

100. This is enough room for 100. 4x6. Another side is going to be for sea monsters. Okay.

Yeah.

And guys, if we're feeling— if we, if we're getting— if we're ahead of the game and we have time, we're gonna make a brooder right here for the ones hatching inside.

That can be two kinds. Oh no, there's not that many of them. How many?

This is super small. How many?

How many are there?

Uh, 4 dozen? Yeah, there's 24 eggs, but not all of them will hatch, so maybe 15 or 20. Yeah, that'll be plenty of space. The rule of thumb is you can put 4 chicks in 1 square foot, so this is, I don't know, 4 foot by 3, that's 12. So you could put, um, gosh, you could put a lot of chicks in there. 48. Hey, come on, let's get the, uh, the hopper. This thing worked awesome with this Sea monsters. There's no, uh, no light. It's not— I'm not worried about starting a fire. I can adjust these legs. The sea monsters were in here, so it was huge. They were at the end, but these guys are going to be tiny. How's your shelf project going?

Good.

Jonah is installing a shelf to refill the feeders without them getting into it. Are you done with your mulch project, Josiah? Okay, it smells a lot better in here. Yeah, higher it, raise it enough so they can get in there. That's gonna be their first priority is to get warm, so that's our first priority. You could level out the shavings too so they can get in there. Let's put some, uh, fermented feed in there and we can go get their magic water. I have this, but I do not have the bottom. Where in the world is the bottom? Does anybody know where the gallon waterer bottom is?

I found where the water bottle is.

Where is it?

It's in the basement.

Can you go get it, please? What, what are you— what is it?

Uh, it's in with my birdie hen, so when Mama goes to town, she needs to get, um, chicks, um, water.

Okay, you're feeding your birdie hen water from that gallon waterer? Yeah. Okay, Mom's not going to town.

Well, how are we gonna get the chicks?

Yeah, I guess somebody's going to town. Okay, back to the water problem. So what's the problem with using this on your broody hen in a quart jar of water? Is she gonna knock it over?

It's just too— it's just so many.

Uh, do you think that'll be okay? And then we can have the gallon water. Wait, why do we have this but no bottom? Now there's one. It's, it's gonna be too big. It's gonna That's gonna be too big for the chicks. It's gonna be hard to keep it clean. Oh yeah, I guess I might, but Jonah could give that to his mama hen. What are you doing with that?

I want it. I want to water the plant.

All right, we're getting that filled up. What you watering on the stairs?

We're just watering the ants.

Oh, you're watering mom's garden? Good. I'm gonna speed this up. Whoops. Yeah, no, it's not working. Let's go switch that out. Don't forget to take your cap off when you get over there, okay? What, you want more? Okay, watch out. I've got this extra tank, this gallon tank. I'm gonna go get some magic water. Jonah's getting me the bottom. We'll be set. We got feed, Water, heat. Okay, where's our feed trap? Yep. And do we have our pan?

Put that in.

Um, if I did right, I put it back. Put it back. Got a new quote for us. Take some pressure off yourself every day. I'm saying to myself right now, every day in every way I'm getting better. Can you people say that?

Every day, in every way, I'm getting better.

Say that to yourself 10, 12 times a day. It's going to come true. Good boy. I need you to turn around so that the hole is downhill. Yeah, good.

Oh, all we're going to do is separate the calf, sheephood, and pop. Guys, come look at this bubble before it pops.

Oh my, look, look! We looked up the tracking number for the chicks and, uh, they said they're out for delivery. The post office has never delivered, but there's the— there's the post office. This is not normally the time they come, so I bet they're bringing chicks. Normally you guys don't deliver those.

No, uh, this was a special circumstance. Okay, I don't have the regular mail. Well, I did bring your mail with you, but, um, we didn't have a phone number for you at all, but I have a phone number. Part of this had come off, so we just wanted to get them to you as soon as possible, so I just made a special trip out here.

Okay, well, thank you. I appreciate it. All right, well, thank you. That's nice. We don't have to go to town.

That's right.

Mom, you got your barnyard flock— red, yellow, and black.

Are y'all dipping their beets? Mama and Papa gonna be all by themselves.

If they're beaks missing, I'm gonna put a brooder over here.