Other Chick Set-Ups Failed Me | NOT This

It's the third week of a breakneck workload. Surprisingly, unlike my history of Lyme disease, I feel great physically and mentally despite all that's going on. Is there a turkey in the sea monster? Oh, oh shoot, there is. Got it? Yeah. Okay, that's where it all begins. 100 Cornish Cross. I call them sea monsters from McMurray Hatchery. That's 4 by 6 area, 4, uh, birds per square foot. C for Cornish Cross monster because they grow ludicrous speed. Sea monsters are the chainsaws of livestock animals, just so efficient. Yesterday our harvest averaged 6.1 pounds per bird. We had 75-ish birds. That's almost 500 pounds of meat in our freezer in just 2 months, guys. If you don't know anything about homesteading or growing feed food, that's ridiculous. To get 400, almost 500 pounds of feed, it's gonna take a steer and a half 2 years. Hey, try not to spill it out here. Attract the rats. But honestly, I don't care if we attract the rats. We've got a rat-proof brooder. We've got regular outdoor doors caged in with 1/2-inch wire mesh all around. Now, we already had a stall, so we just built it to fit the stall. You could do something smaller, of course. It doesn't need to be this tall. We have raised siding. See how this door is up so that we can accommodate deep bedding, keep it sanitary in there? Sea Monsters over here, T-Birds over there. T-birds is turkeys. Found this to be tea. What's all rooster tea? Go ahead, keep doing that. Chicken don't have teeth, so they swallow rocks, uh, put that in their gizzard muscle, and then just grind up their food with that. We do this and New Country organic starter feed the entire time. I mean, you could switch over to grower feed. It's just we buy our feed by the tote because it's a lot cheaper, which means 1,000 pounds or 2,000 pounds. So it's just easier that way. It's the same stuff, just ground up. Let's get some shavings down. You gotta do this every day, just a little bit, just a little bit. 3 weeks old, 1 week old. They're ready to go out on pasture when they're 3 weeks old. We'd never mix them. The reason we have them mixed is because that batch of 3 weeks old, like 92 of them died because of the post office delay. So McMurray quickly sent out some others, and it's just— I mean, we're just gonna batch them together. Guys, like my homemade dirt trap? Half-inch wire mesh on a wooden frame. And they don't track shavings into those feeders or waters. The other key to the rat-proof is tin bottom, tin walls, and tin on the bottom. I want you to notice how deep this bedding is. Bedding's right here, the bedding's right here, and it is full of microbial life absorbing this manure. This is warm. This helps to keep them warm too because it's composting. Beck, you want me to take him? You're going to have him a lot today though because I'm going to be in this Filming this course. Okay, Josh Thomas is here filming me for a master class he's putting together. I'll be doing the part on raising meat chickens, and I always wondered, you know, how am I gonna do? Am I gonna like blank? Am I gonna have to repeat things? Am I gonna hold up the whole crew?

I'm gonna go turn on these.

You'll be fine. You'll be fine. I'll miss you though. How they doing on their minerals, Beck?

They were only out of 2, and the sheep weren't out of any.

Sweet. Look, homeboy fell asleep. There you go, little man.

I have newly planted. I replanted green beans, bush beans this time, not pole beans. Sunflowers, cucumbers, dill, some marigolds, some calendula. They're germinating, so it's exciting.

Just captured 8. That's what we got. We're gonna demo putting these guys out in the field. You guys ready? Best day of their life. We got our net set up because we just took the big birds out of here and we just put the little birds in. The goose wasn't lonely very long. Where's he at? There you are. What we did, we took the birds out of the crate, dip their beak in, just get them to know where the water is. And best day ever.

I guess the fencing's light enough that it doesn't Hurt them being this small, or do you keep the fencing off?

No, we will turn it on and shock them.

Okay.

And they'll— they don't do it much.

Sure.

Yeah, they learn. They get shocked once and they learn. Yeah. We're in a bit of an awkward position because they need shots of people getting out to pasture, but we only have 8. So really we're just doing this for demo. It's not going to be worth managing just 8 out here. We're going to put them back in the brooder. Josh, where did you find this film production crew? Oh man, these guys are awesome. Found them through some friends down in San Diego. Will travel with a 10x10 and a couple comfy chairs. Yeah, right, and a photographer. That's right, Jesse's awesome. Looks like it might rain. I'm happy, y'all are nervous. The chicks are 3 weeks old. This is the best day of their life. We're gonna get them out of the brooder and into the pasture. Okay, California, you think we got it? Oh yeah. What do you think about this rain, San Diego? How much does it rain in San Diego? Not much. I can't remember. We don't hear thunder a lot. You can't remember the last time it rained? He said, yeah, in here, 5 days, right, Justin? I can't remember either. It's been like 5 days, something. Video 5, ordering chicks, take 1. We've gone over all the supplies, but there's still one more thing you need to think about, and that would be your last average frost date and your first average frost date. Look, this time they got me on teleprompter. First time, first time teleprompter. Been a long day filming. We sure are going to teach people how to grow their own meat birds for sure. It's 5 weeks on the carnivore, but really I've been feeling super good for the last couple of weeks. Less foot pain, less back pain, Candida's going away. I thought clearly the entire day, nailed my parts. Taking time for the training, gotta keep that up. How do I look, Jacob? 5 weeks in, lean and mean. Let's see. I know I've been basically 5 weeks without Step back. How's she looking, Jacob? Very snappy.

When was the last time you felt this good?

Okay, when did I first get Lyme?

2012. Okay, 2011.

You know, it wasn't as bad at first, so 2013, '14. Notice we are getting the seeds out of this fruit. My coronavirus diet has rubbed off on you a little bit, right? Don't eat those fortified toxic seeds. I mean, why not de-seed it? It doesn't add any flavor. These seeds— this is my lunch. Easy, easy. I would never have to go to the grocery store again. Look at this spread the beautiful one has made. Billy knows what's up. She put a little Mexican rice on there, some beef taco. You got— you like salsa verde? Thomas, how was it? Second, third day working? Awesome. You gonna make it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? 3 more days. Yeah, you gonna do it? You normally get up at 5 o'clock in the morning? Time to time. Rebecca, do you believe it? Is this not unbelievable? You think it's gonna last? I don't know, I feel like we've done a lot of things. Can you celebrate in your heart?

Yeah.

No. When do you think you'll be able to celebrate? So people don't think you're a jerk. Yeah. Why can't you celebrate? I get it.

No, okay, so the reason I can't celebrate is because it's been so long that he's been sick.

Really?

And I just never, I think like after a year.

You don't want to get your hopes up. Yeah. Because then when I relapse It hurts more.

So you just, you just, you just guard your heart.

No, you have to help him. Yeah, you're guarding your heart.

You just have to guard your heart.

Was he doing the milk sign? No, no, he was just saying give it to me.

He was just saying give it to me.

Give it to me.

He's saying bring it on.