Holden Creek Farms
  • Home
  • About
    • A Little About Us
  • Pastured Poultry
    • Overview
    • Pastured Turkey
    • Cooking Tips
  • Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats
    • Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats
  • Home
  • About
    • A Little About Us
  • Pastured Poultry
    • Overview
    • Pastured Turkey
    • Cooking Tips
  • Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats
    • Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats

Chick Delivery Day. . .

5/5/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Many of our farm visitors are often fascinated to hear us describe the arrival of chicks to our farm.  So for those of you who have never heard about chick delivery day, we thought we'd give you some insight. 

Our Freedom Ranger chicks come from Amish country Pennsylvania via the United States Postal Service.  They hatch Wednesdays, ship, and arrive in Ellijay around 5AM by Friday and are in our brooder shortly thereafter.  Chicks usually fare well with shipping, as they can easily go without food or water for several days.  This is due to the fact that in nature, a hen will wait on a nest until all of her eggs have hatched... so the first-hatched chicks are born with the ability to wait out their later arriving siblings.

Once at Holden Creek Farms, the main focus is to get the chicks in the brooder with heat, food, and water.  Each and every chick is unloaded by hand and has its beak carefully dipped in the waterer to encourage drinking.  They usually catch on pretty quickly.  We use a vitamin/mineral supplement with probiotics mixed in the water for the first week.    The chicks have access to heat lamps for warmth.  Our GMO-free chick ration is sprinkled on newspaper, which the chicks enjoy scratching and pecking before they figure out the other style feeders.  Within a short time, the entire batch of birds is eating, drinking, and scurrying around the brooder like small roadrunners.  The chicks stay in the brooder for 2-3 weeks before "moving day" when they begin their life on pasture... a story for another newsletter!

2 Comments
Pat lewis
9/29/2015 10:22:43 am

I loved reading about your farm and the antics of your animals and birds. I'm an island girl, my mother named her goats and pigs and chicks even though they would have been dinner one day. Thats why they tasted so good, they were raised with love. I hope to visit your farm one day. Keep up the good works, even though i don't know you I feel we are kin

Reply
Sarah
11/18/2015 05:46:03 am

Thanks so much for the kind words! Please do visit if you are ever in the area. Hopefully we will find the time to get some more post up soon. Take care!!

Reply



Leave a Reply.


    Picture

    Welcome to Holden Creek Farms, a small pasture-based farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Our small family farm is a testament to values we hold dear and that have been passed down through the generations .....a love and respect for one another and a deep connection to the land and animals we care for. 


    Categories

    All
    Animal Husbandry
    Nourishment
    Shooting The Breeze



    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly