Graduated the flock to a hanging feeder yes that is an old dog chain and spark plug wrench holding it up, all about repurposing here!

It adjusts by taking the handle off and sliding the chain up a notch or two until the lip is at the chicks back height. To remove just grab the handle and pull the wrench out, easy solution. They seem to like it as all 24 of them can fit around it which is what happens when I give the the food back in the morning.

Also they got a new waterer it’s a 2gal galvanized job made in the USA very nice but I overlooked the fact that it can’t be hung due to the design so it’s placed on a 4″ block to raise it up to back height. Before they had a pair of quart waterers that would need to be refilled once a day this will easily make it 24hrs.

8 days old and doing great!

We did loose 1 of the 25 at day 3 due to a leg injury I think one of the kids may have dropped it accidentally by the looks of it. On day 5 there food gets pulled back after 12 hours so they are on a 12 hour feeding cycle now 7am to 7pm with ample water 24 hours a day.

Other changes made have been adding a new feeder to make sure they have plenty during the day they are just the standard galvanized trough types they work great for starting chicks and we prefer them over plastic cause they last longer, the plastic ones always end up breaking due to getting brittle from sitting around in the off season. Also as you can see in the photo the chicks now have a new red night light it keeps them just as warm but calms them down a bunch over the clear heat light both are 250w by the way. More updates to follow still need to add the big waterer and feeder to get them off the ground as the chicks grow and get there movable pen setup for week 3 when they get to go out in the wild and enjoy some fresh grass under their feet.

Groov’n in the red light!

We are making a go at raising a bunch of little Cornish X chickens this year, here is the first batch at 1 day old doing what they are supposed to…Eating!

The brooder is setup for a deep litter with wood shavings getting piled on daily, there is no bottom to the box so at the end of three weeks once the chicks move to a chicken tractor the box gets lifted and there is a tarp on the bottom that folds over the litter so it can be hauled out and get placed in the yard.