New Years Day

The year officially begins at Wrong Direction Farm with the first hatching. And so this week we were excited to hear from our hatchery that they had an order cancellation, and they wanted to know if we were interested. Of course we were. We had to scramble to get the brooder running, schedule a last minute delivery of three tons of organic chicken feed, and call for a propane tank refill for the heaters, but everything came together just in time and we were ready when the chicks arrived. And so our farming new year begins.

Chicks settling into the brooder at a comfortable (to them) 90 degrees.

All six hundred chicks have been doing well. This batch appears to be in great health, with zero mortalities thus far. They are zippy and bright eyed, except of course during nap time.

The first day involves a lot of napping. Getting out of the egg shell is hard work.

Meanwhile, we’ve got plenty of activity going on setting up new brooders. This morning several neighbors came over and helped get the last trailer down the steep hill and into position on the terrace. Then we pulled the reefer units off and now I can begin refitting the trailers as new brooders.

It took a lot of eyeballs spotting and some seat-of-the-pants rigging to back the trailer down the obstacle course of the driveway and the across the slope to the terrace. The big telehandler was the right machine for such a touchy operation. Everyone did a great job.
Chirpy little cockerel. It is hard to believe how fast he’ll grow. See the tiny white feathers appearing on the tips of his wings? Eventually he’ll be all white.

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