Baby peeps are so cute! Our hardware store has some, and they are very good about educating people who buy them. I'd love to get a couple of babies, but I don't need another project.
They are straight run. I estimate half will be males, and we'll start to butcher them at 4 months old and up. I have a nice big coop with plenty of room and a big outside area for them to scratch aroun in. We're also making a second yard for them behind the coop so we can alternate - so the grass can regrow etc.
Sounds like you need to fix a chicken tractor for them. (This is a cage on wheels which you can move around however often or even daily if you want to so the grass won't die completely under the chicken pen.) Kabuldur has one and can probably describe them far better than I can. Do be sure to string some fishing line across the top of whatever sort of pen you build to keep the hawks and owls out. Do you live in an area that has kudzu in it? My mom's chickens dearly loved the stuff and would eat it by the armload. It's a high protein veggie. :)
We have kudsu here - we have companies who are dedicated to removing it. Here, maybe because of the climate, it's invasive and very destructive to other plants (mostly due to it's habit of smothering them). I didn't know the chickens liked it. I am sure I could find a ton growing on some tree somewhere nearby :-)
I didn't believe it until I saw mom's chickens go after an armload of kudzu and eat it down to the stems inside of fifteen minutes. Just be sure to get kudzu that hasn't been sprayed with anything. :)
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sforzinda
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Date: 2011-03-02 09:45 am (UTC)They are cute, BTW :)
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Date: 2011-03-02 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 04:46 pm (UTC)Fifty is a lot! Straight run or pullets?
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Date: 2011-03-02 05:11 pm (UTC)They're so cute!
Date: 2011-03-03 05:19 am (UTC)Do be sure to string some fishing line across the top of whatever sort of pen you build to keep the hawks and owls out.
Do you live in an area that has kudzu in it?
My mom's chickens dearly loved the stuff and would eat it by the armload. It's a high protein veggie.
:)
Re: They're so cute!
Date: 2011-03-03 02:08 pm (UTC)Re: They're so cute!
Date: 2011-03-03 06:17 pm (UTC)Just be sure to get kudzu that hasn't been sprayed with anything.
:)
Re: They're so cute!
Date: 2011-03-03 06:24 pm (UTC)Rent-A-Cluck for all your kudzu removing needs!
Particularly if you raised Freedom Rangers or some other functional, good-foraging, fast-growing broiler type.
Turn your Kudzu into good food!
Re: They're so cute!
Date: 2011-03-03 07:37 pm (UTC)Re: They're so cute!
Date: 2011-03-04 08:13 am (UTC)Cattle seem to love siliage made from kudzu in particular.
:)