Chickens, Chickens Everywhere!!

I have fallen behind on my weekly pictures of the chickens. I can't imagine why?? Especially now that we have 800 of the little peeps! I guess you could say that we are in full swing with the chicken business. I took pictures of all the "groups" that we have. We have four groups of 200 chickens and this is how it will be all summer since we get a new group of 200 every two weeks. We process 200 every two weeks as well.

When the chicks first get here, they spend two weeks in the nursery (brooder) where the temperature is kept around 90 degrees the first week and then is gradually decreased as the chicks get older.

The Nursery (Brooder)

Who wants to have a painting party??
My coops WILL get painted this summer, even if I have to make the cats do it.

One week old chicks in the nursery.

After two weeks in the nursery, they move over to the preschool. I know, it needs painted too.

The Preschool

Three week old chicks and the new egg layers.

They are starting get all their feathers! Very cute and curious at this age!





When they are four weeks old and have most all their feathers, they move out into the real world. They are protected from predators with an electrified poultry netting fence and have a movable shelter which we move to new pasture every other day. They are free to do what ever they want, whether it be a game of "keep away" with a grasshopper or simply taking a nap in the cool grass.

Front of movable shelter.

Resting inside shelter.

The chickens stay out on pasture until it is time to process them. We process part of each batch at seven weeks and the rest at eight weeks.

Two girlfriends enjoying each others company and the comfort of the cool grass.

Yummy alfalfa!

We have four of these movable pens. 100 chickens are in each pen.



The chickens are fed twice a day and supplied with fresh water twice a day, sometimes three times a day if it is a hot day. Now that we are in full swing, we feed approximately 420 lbs of feed a day and go through approximately 500 gallons of water!!


Whew, no wonder I am so tired!

So there you go folks, a day in the life of a farm fresh pastured chicken at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch.