Chicks are getting bigger, time to order more

On the last day of April, roughly 5 weeks ago, our first batch of meat chicks arrived in the mail.

Now most of them are just about the size of "Cornish game hens". People don't generally know this, but what is called a 'game hen" in the supermarket is neither a game bird nor a hen. They are usually Cornish Cross roosters that are a month old. If left to grow longer, they become the standard chickens that you'd buy at the meat counter, and left even longer they become those giant Purdue Oven Stuffer roasters.

I'll probably let these grow out another 5 weeks or so and put them in the freezer for winter. In the mean time, it is time to order the next batch of chicks. I get 50 at a time. A certain amount of them are lost to piling or whatever, but around 75-80% of them live to be Sunday dinners.

The plan is to order some every month, as soon as the previous batch vacates the brooder or the growing-out pen. That way, we make the best use of the weather when we don't need to worry about water fonts freezing.