Chicks at 2 weeks

 Last week we made the decision to move the meat chickens out to the large garage brooder.  We were losing about a chick a day and finally wondered if it had to do with overcrowding.  These Cornish Cross chickens are OBSESSED with eating and were stomping all over one another each time we re-filled the food tray.  Out in the garage brooder we added warming lights, doubled our waterers, and tripled our food trays.  They seem to be much happier now.  Since the move only one more has died (the first night) and the rest seem healthy and active.

 It is really hard to tell these chicks apart.  This is due in part to the fact that they don't really have any distinguishing marks and also to the fact that we have 31 of them (out of our original 36).

 We are feeding these guys in the morning and then right before we go to bed.  Where most other breeds will self-regulate the amount of food they eat, the Cornish Crosses will gorge themselves-even to the point of falling asleep with their head in the feed!  We restrict their food in order for them to grow a little slower, giving their joints and bones time to strengthen.

 When we place their full feed trays into the brooder, these chicks swarm and attack like piranhas!  Our other chicks are still skittish when they see my hand enter the brooder for their feed tray, usually running to the other end.  Not these Cornish Crosses!  They come running as soon as they see my hand because they already know my hand = food.  CRAZY.  They are already 2-3 times as big as my indoor girls.

 Below is a shot of my indoor girls.  I love them.  Truly.  It's ridiculous and I feel sorta silly about it.   I have named some of them and talk sweetly to them.  The ones I have named actually come over to me when I stop to chat.  It's true.  Ask Lige.  We are having a hard time telling our Brown Leghorns apart, so they don't have names yet. (Though I have been calling whichever one is closest Mrs. Rufflebottom...we had to scrub the hinie of one due to pasty-butt---a real and serious chicken problem!)  Our Barred Rocks each have noticeable features, so we are naming them.  So far we have:

Beatrice

Tricksie

Miss Quizzle

and my favorite- Miss Marple

(She's the lovely lady in the center with a lot of white on her face.)

Hopefully I'll soon get a shot of one of our Cornish Crosses with one of my indoor girls to show the size difference.  Until nest time!

(Ok, I just noticed that interesting Freudian slip there..."nest time" instead of "next time" HA! *************My name is Dusty and I am addicted to raising and researching chickens....!)