more chickens

On Thursday, we got a call at 7AM, telling us that our chicks had arrived. We got 150 of these Broilers. I didn't get a picture of all of them crammed in their boxes and once we put them in the brooder, they went under the hood where it was light and warm. We've put their food and water at the edge of the hood, so we don't see them all at once. This was from the first day, so soft and fluffy:



Today was warm and many of them came out from under the hood to run around. You can see little feathers growing in on their wings, and we can tell that they're getting heavier when we pick them up:



It is hard to believe that these will be full-grown (7-8 lb) chickens, ready to be put out of their misery in just 7 more weeks. We raised 50 of these with some neighbors last year and since they put on meat faster than their organs develop, if we don't slaughter them at 8 weeks, they'll start dying. Also, they are so heavy that their legs can't support them well, so they lay around when they're not eating or drinking. It's pretty sad, but they're good eating.