Spring Cornish X Update
posted on
July 25, 2021
I want you to know your farmer. I also want to be transparent. Along those lines, this blog is my best access to sharing successes and failures as well as lessons learned. Spring batches are harder than Fall batches!
First, USPS had a rough late winter/early Spring for shipping birds. We had significant losses from USPS and while that was very sad, the hatchery worked hard with me and did their best to make it right.
Second, the weather when the chicks were very small was unpredictable. In March we had both warmer days/evenings and a couple extremely cold nights. This challenge pointed out weaknesses in our system concerning the brooder. Regulating temperature is difficult when the temperature swings greatly.
Third, Spring Predators were far more aggressive than I have seen at any other time. We had foxes and possums. We know without question that not only people love Carver Family Farms Chicken!
Fourth, Spring wind storms! We had a Suscovitch style pen, blow over (uphill) by about 20 feet. The birds were then outside of the now empty pen and were terrorized by night time predators and almost an entire pen was lost. Thankfully we were able to salvage the chicken tractor and learned a valuable lesson about staking them down in very strong wind storms.
Finally, late May and June heat waves can be destructive as the birds generate significant heat by their large body sizes and also eating/digesting large amounts of food so they have trouble not overheating when the temperature is >90. We lost several birds hours before they were ready for the processor.
The good news is that we learn from our mistakes and every day on the farm is a learning experience. Our hatchery was extremely helpful and encouraging as was our processor. We have tweaked our systems to minimize future losses and maximize living conditions for our birds.
We take the heat of the summer off from raising birds. Our next chicks will hatch in August so as they get bigger the weather will also start to get cooler. Our goal is for birds to be on pasture from April-Mid June and then again from September to November.
