Broiler Chicks and Turkeys – Day 1 – Summer 2011

Visit us at www.homegrownfarming.com We just got a new batch of 25 broiler chickens along with 4 turkey chicks. This video doesn’t have a lot of talking, because my wife and I were just hanging out and watching them. This was their first night in the brooder. It’s a huge area for them right now. We are really nervous about raising these guys this time of year. Being that it’s mid June here in Texas, and temps get over 100 degrees during the day, we are being really cautious with the heat lamp. The brooder is in the shade of a giant pecan tree, and this area is actually fairly comfortable even in the heat of the day. So this, along with a cooling fan, and ice blocks being given to them every day will hopefully keep them relatively cool. If they need heat from the lamp, they can go to that part of the brooder for it. I’m probably only going to keep this on for 3 or 4 nights at most. This is our first time raising turkeys so we are putting them in with the broilers, and we wanted to start off with a very small number of them in order to keep the broiler to turkey ratio high. Turkeys have a steep learning curve, and it’s best to raise them with broilers on about a 5 to 1 ratio. So far you can really see how curious they are, and they do seem to follow the lead of the broilers. I’m just on suicide watch with them, because if there’s a way to kill themselves they will find it. We will be processing the broilers at 6 to 7 weeks depending on their development. I don’t want them …