NOTE: What you are about to read may seem ludicrous to you. We are not professionals nor veterinarians. We are resourceful homesteaders using what we have to raise our own food in our own backyard. There may be wiser and better ways to raise meat chickens on the internet. This is simply the Johnson Home method. We learn something new and better all the time and that comes with experience.
Also note: when you have livestock of any sort, you will also have deadstock. Death is inevitable. It is our goal to keep as many meat birds alive until processing day. Otherwise that is money out of our pockets and food off our table. Some practices we choose to do, others will think is a waste of time. To each their own.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
OKAY, LET’S GET INTO WEEK 1 WITH NEW MEAT BIRD BABY CHICKENS!
Prep Work
Before arrival of meat chickens
Before the baby birds arrive, brooders need to be set up.
- Heat lamps secured and bulbs checked (or use a heat plate).
- Waterers and feeders need washing and sanitizing, ready to be filled day of arrival.
- Wood shavings (Tractor Supply’s “flakes”) spread within the brooders.
For us, brooder boxes are 64 gallon rolling totes that fit about 25 biddies each comfortably for 3 days.
That’s a lot of work for a few short days! Yes it is but we move them to a tractor outside that is protected from the weather and predators because these birds get big and smelly fast.
In their first few days, baby birds are learning how to regulate their body temperature with the help of heat lamps. As well as learning to eat and drink on their own. YOU are Mama Bird. Their soft down feathers hold little heat so a warm, dry place is where their first few days must be spent.
Pro Tips to Consider
- get a greenhouse thermometer to put under where the heat lamp shines directly. Baby birds like about 90 degrees for the first few days, dropping down about 5 degrees every week or less. This means moving the heat lamp or heat plate higher.
- Use carabiner clips or zip ties to double secure the heat lamp in the event it loosens and tries to fall into the brooder and onto the birds and wood chips!
- Use scrap 2×4 wood pieces or bricks to lift up the waterer and feeder in the brooder. This will HELP prevent wood chips and poop from getting in the dispensers.
Day of meat chickens arrival
- Collect birds from the post office AS SOON as possible after the call that your shipment has arrived. Those baby birds have not eaten or drank water since being hatched 2-3 days before arrival.
- Then get birds home and each beak dipped into water for their first taste of hydration then place each biddie into the brooder with fresh feed and water. Heat lamp should be on too.
- Consider having feeder and waterer already set up in brooder and using a different waterer outside of brooder for beak dipping.
- Depending on your set up, this can save your back from bending up and down to the brooder and entrapment of chicks under waterer when trying to lower waterer into brooder. These fluff balls are tiny and fast and try as you might to scare them out of the way, one can get trapped under the waterer without you knowing.
- Also consider using the small version of waterer at your local feed store. Usually holds a quart of water.
- Continue to check on the birds every couple of hours (if your daily schedule allows) looking for signs of weak birds.
Signs of weak meat chicken babies
Some signs of weak birds may include but are not limited to:
- bottom of the pile (if piling occurs, something needs to be changed ASAP! More on that below.)
- standing crouched alone, possibly swaying
- refusing to drink or eat
- getting stepped on by others
What to do with weak birds
PLEASE NOTE: this is our 5th round of meat birds and we are not experts nor veterinarians. We simply use the internet and other veteran chicken owners’ suggestions to save as many chicks as we can! What is written below may be utilized or taken with a grain of salt.
- In the event of weaklings, you will need to set up a hospital.
This may be a separate smaller tote box or cardboard box lined with wood chips and a source of heat. We have used a heat lamp, grow mat for seedlings, a wax warmer, or you can use a heat plate. Small water and feeder inside as well.
You will now need to be Bird Nurse and begin letting weaklings drink sugar water by using your finger to drop water on the side of the beak. The bird should throw back its head to swallow the water. If the bird does not drink, do not force the bird to drink. They can quickly aspirate and die of pneumonia (so I have read… and have experienced). Continue to rub water drops along the side of beak to encourage bird to drink.
How to make sugar water:
Add a teaspoon of (preferably) organic raw cane sugar to a quart of water and allow it to dissolve. If using hot water, allow cooling before serving.
Sugar water is meant as a quick pick-me-up for those baby birds who may be chilled from transit. Baby birds who are cold will not eat or drink. They need to be very warm from heat lamp or brooder heat mat and some quick energy from the sugar to give the weakling strength to eat. Sugar water is not intended to be given long term! Arrival day only.
Alternatives to sugar are honey and molasses. The sugar is drawn into the intestines and causes a runny stool. Diarrhea causes pasty butt. This is why you do not want to continue to give sugar water.
Other helpful weakling measures
It is helpful to have plain full fat Greek yogurt on hand to serve to the weak birds. If weakling is eating the yogurt fine, add crushed crumbles of feed to the yogurt as a topping. They need the protein. Once weakling is eating yogurt topped with feed well, take yogurt away and give only feed.
More can be said about weak birds, vitamin deficiency, curly leg syndrome, and botulism in feed but I am not the expert and these topics will take this post in 14 different directions. Do your own research! Ask questions. Read books.
Highly recommend: Pastured Poultry Profit$ by Joel Salatin. Even if you are not looking to sell your meat birds, there is SO much valuable information inside this book about raising meat birds.
Continued meat chickens care in WEEK 1
Each day you will continue to:
- keep an eye on the birds for weaklings
- change and clean water daily
- keep feeder full of feed
- freshen the wood chips 1-2x daily (deep litter method means adding fresh chips on top of soiled chips)
- move heat lamp as needed to make it cooler as the birds get bigger
After day 3
Three days in the brooder boxes inside a garage, shop, your house if absolutely necessary then our meat chickens have gotta go!
We choose to move our meat chickens to one of our meat chicken tractors outside under the lean-to (a carport could be used as well).
The baby birds are protected from weather as well as predators. Ventilation and fresh air helps tremendously with their stinky smell.
You can read more details on how we do this AND KEEP THE MEAT CHICKEN BIDDIES WARM below!
What is piling?
If you notice:
- birds piling up one on top of another vertically especially in a corner, the birds are scared and stressed. When you receive your birds in the mail, they can sometimes be piled in the corners from stress and cold. Unpile them immediately!
- the birds are too hot, they may pile up trying to get away from the heat. This is why a thermometer is important to monitor the brooder temp.
- they are too cold, they may pile up. Again, thermometer.
When birds are huddled together but flat, not vertical; this is okay. They are huddling for additional warmth but are not potentially suffocating other birds in the process.
Raising meat chickens requires work
When you raise meat chickens, it takes some effort and energy from the chicken tender AKA you.
Our family has found tremendous value in raising our own meat chickens to fill the freezer. The taste of the chicken meat is unmatched!
Allowing meat chickens to be raised in an ethical way, allowing them fresh air, sunshine, and grass daily is how chickens should be raised. It does not take a lot of acreage to raise meat chickens.
More Meat Chicken Reading:
How to raise 68 meat chickens on less than half an acre
Is it worth raising your own meat birds?
SHOP THIS POST
Pastured Poultry Profit$ by Joel Salatin
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