Chicken Moving Day

     It is a wonderful day when we can move the chickens from the brooding coop to their pasture pens.

Chickens in the coop before being moved
out to pasture for the season.

     It all started last November when the first batch of chicks arrived at our local Cross Plains Post Office. I get an early morning call to come pick them up. The Post Office is not officially open to the public, so I knock on the back door and they let me in. After the postmaster scans the box and records the pick up, I load them into my warm car and head back to the farm. The heat lamps are on, it is very important that the chicks are kept warm these first days of their lives. Each chick is individually removed from the box and I dip it's beak into warm water for a first drink to get them going. Then the chick is placed under the warm heat lamp. There is chick starter (feed) sprinkled on newspaper to help them find their first food. I check on them often to make sure the heat lamps stay on and that there is plenty of food and water available at all times.
     This fall posed a new issue for Dreamfarm. I ordered all 250 chicks to arrive the same week. But there were hatching problems at the hatchery. The second batch of chicks arrived 1 month later. One month of age makes a big difference in the chick world. The older chicks would be too aggressive
to the younger chicks. We decided that we needed to divide the space in the chicken coop so that the older chicks were in a separate area. It all worked out quite well, and the chicks turned into chickens over the next 4-5 months. It is quite amazing to see the chicken coop turn from plenty of space for all the chicks, into bursting at the seams by spring. That is when we are so happy to get them onto pasture. Three of our chicken hoops needed big repairs. Jim, with help from Diana, Alicia and Rosalyn worked on the repairs and completed them on April 8. All 4 hoops needed to be moved to new pasture. The areas where we housed them the past 10 years needs to rest.
     April 10 was the big moving day. Jim hooks our old blue Ford up to the front of the hoop, 2 people lift up the back with hand trucks. Then Jim pulls the hoop to the designated area as the people in the back follow by holding the hand trucks. We place the poultry netting around the coop, set up the roosts, food and water and all is ready to receive the chickens. The night before the move we closed the chickens into the coop after they had settled to roost for the night. (We opened the door each day so the chickens could be outside). With a "catch fence", we gather the birds into a corner, catch and put them into crates. The crates are driven to the pasture, placed into the hoops; the crate door is opened and the chickens pop out and immediately begin to peck for bugs, worms and grasses. It is a wonderful site. Of course, it does not all go as planned. By the end of the day, many birds have flown over the poultry fence. Some have already roosted in the trees. The following morning, they are huddled outside by the door. For some reason, they can fly out, but they can't figure out how to fly back in! We get them back in through the door, and they do the same thing the next night. But they seem to be laying most of their eggs in the nest boxes before they "fly the coop" for the day.

The movable chicken hoops in their first location
for the 2015 season

     The first eggs are very small, they are called pullet eggs. The egg will size up as the chicken continues to lay. It takes their bodies a little time to adjust. They will peak in production this summer, then slowly drop off as the days get shorter and colder. We raise a variety of breeds, which gives us a variety of egg colors: brown, blue and white. The eggs are certified organic through MOSA. We sell our eggs at the Westside Community Market.
 
     We still have a few "cheese shares" available through our Dreamfarm CSA program. If interested, check out our website at: www.dreamfarm.biz to sign up. We also are back at the Westside Community Market located at the Westside DOT up the road from Hilldale Mall. We hope you will join us for the season!

Diana, Jim and Alicia smile for the camera at the
end of another successful chicken moving day. 

View from the blue tractor on the way out to the
chicken hoops. Alicia walks ahead.