We got chicks!

It’s time again to raise a group of Cornish Cross chicks, the kind of chicks we raise for meat. They arrived via overnight mail last week, 50 little peeps in a box, keeping each other warm until they arrived. Chicks are able to survive their first day of life without food or water, but they were ready to chow down by the time they got to their new home. Actually, only 20 of the chicks came to live at Namaste Farm. The other 30 went on to live at Redbrooke Ranch. Ordering chicks together is just one way local farming is a joint effort.

They are so cute! This breed is known for very quick growth and an abundance of breast meat. I don’t think about that when I open the box and show them the way to food, water, and a heat source. They are just like my other babies, treated with care and kindness. For the first 2 days, they live on paper towels so they can easily learn to find and eat their food. Then they get some nice soft bedding in their pen in our garage. It’s a safe, carefree life for fluffy babies. They have a radiant heat source that mimics a mama chicken - heat lamps are a fire source if you are thinking of getting chicks.

Eventually they will grow feathers. Eventually they will move outside, pick greens in the yard, and live in comfort with their friends. They will eat to their hearts’ content. One day, weeks away, we will process them. They will never sit in cages in a vast chicken house. They will never ride in a truck with hundreds of other chickens to a processing plant. That’s just one of the reasons we are farmers.