Nothing says spring like a box of day old chicks. I bought forty White rock to start off with this spring and will be hopefully ordering a few more batches in the summer and fall if i am able to find enough customers for them. This breed is the most common for meat production as they grow rapdily and are ready for market within six weeks in most cases. The weather has been on my side so far as the chicks are very vulernable to cold there first week which made it inevitable that the day i got them had to be the coldest in weeks. But other than keeping them in the basement for their first night they have been doing great as it can be very easy to lose a whole batch of them to disease, predators or cold if you arent extremely protective in their first weeks. I have them under two heat lamps to insure more than enough heat as they need it be at least 90F for their first week. Raising chickens can seem daunting to most people but it is actually not that hard once you get the hang of it. All it takes really is to properly understand an provide the conditions essential to their proper health, growth and space needs as this is the best way to insure a better tasting chicken. Unlike battery chickens which is how most chickens are grown in intensive farming these chicks will enjoy more space and more frequent coop cleaning than they would on a large scale farm. If your squeamish and like to know that the chicken you eat is well provided for then these would be the chickens for you. While their life isn't perfect it is definitely better than being raised for the deep fryer.
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