Farm Update - It's All About Those Birds

So, we are strapping in to what is about to be the beginning of a very busy next few months. Right before writing this, I just finished putting the Yard Bird chicken plucker together. I don't think that should have been so hard to put together, but everything was so tight. The holes for the bolts are exact sizes and on and on...it made the process difficult. To install everything, you have to put one of those rubber fingers in and what a pain that was.
Yard Bird Chicken Plucker

So, everything starts getting busy on Monday. That's when the final pieces show up to finish building our prototype quail tractor. This tractor will be able to house up to 200 quail in it and light enough to move every day on pasture without machinery or equipment of any sort. If not used for quail, it could house 35 chickens or up to 14 Turkeys.

So Let's Talk About Those Birds

After I get the parts for the tractor, I will have 2 days to assemble the tractor and get it ready for birds. For the first 3 weeks of the tractor's life, it will be used as a brooder. On Thursday the 11th, we will receive our 5 turkeys that will be pasture raised all the way until the week of Thanksgiving. We will then process them for Thanksgiving and Christmas for family. On Friday the 12th, we will be receiving our Freedom Ranger chickens. These take roughly 11-12 weeks to grow out to process. Both sets of birds will go into the new tractor for 3 weeks as a brooder set up.

What About The Quail?

Quail eggs in the incubator

That's right! The Quail. So, that's what's going on for next week. The following week on approximately Tuesday, we will have up to 150 quail hatching out. Those quail are specifically for selling and dispatching for the freezer.

Our Quail On Pasture

They will also go in to the tractor as a brooder setup as well. So, that's 3 different types of birds in 3 sections of the new tractor for a brooder. Then, on Saturday the 20th we will be processing the Cornish Cross chickens (hence the chicken plucker assembly).
The Cornish Cross In Their Tractor

So, that gets us through the next two weeks and then we will have a little down time as all of the new birds will be in the brooder for around 3 weeks. Then, it's back to putting them all in their own tractors and putting them to pasture and moving them every day.

The quail will be in their tractor for 5-7 weeks (depending on our schedules). At that point, they will be 8-10 weeks old and we will process them.

The Freedom Rangers will be in their own tractor for up to 9 weeks. At that point, they will be 12 weeks old and we will process them.

The turkeys take 18-20 weeks before processing them, so they will be in there all the way up until Thanksgiving.

Busy busy times, but we aren't just providing for ourselves, we are reaching out for new business lines and new products to provide new customers. All in all, once again, we are transforming from a homestead to a farmstead and the journey is hectic.

Thanks for reading and Happy Homesteading!

Until next time...

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