When to move chickens from brooder to pasture

hey it's Johnson's Govich and I wanted to shoot a video on when you tell it's time to put your broilers out on pasture so these are Cornish cross I raised both Cornish cross and red Rangers here on farm and I'm in one of my brooder sheds and I have this guy with me as an example these are males they're about two weeks old I do two weeks in the brooder and six weeks in the field now there's a couple factors that play into that not an exact science for me weather is a big factor if it's going to rain or if it's going to be a terrible day spending a couple extra days and the brooder is not a bad thing it'll save you from your birds getting wet cold and dying on you but there is that fine line of if they get too big in the brooder they're getting too wet they're pooping a lot and creating a lot of ammonia then they're getting sick and it's weakening them for later in life and you start to run into things like coccidiosis so this guy about two weeks you can see is about the size of baseball I want to show you here we've got a whole bunch of primary flight feathers and you know Cornish cross never feather out that well in the middle of summer right now it's beginning a June you're going to cooperate with me and I never feather out real crazy and the brooder that still be a little bit fuzzy what you want to do is from when you begin brooding them to when they go out in the field you're gradually stepping down their heat so you're starting around 94 95 degrees and then gradually stepping down so that the last several days in the brooder there as the environment inside is exactly like the environment outside they're just safe and at home but they are starting to harden off it was 42 degrees last night I had no heat in here I had windows open it was you know safe and secure but it was like the temperature outside so that when they spend the night outside tonight and going forward it's not a big shock to their system you don't want to give them lights up until they go because then they won't be used to it I'm going to put him down so I can finish this video without a distracting little mom my end so one of the things you'll notice next to me is this pile of shavings there bales of pine shavings that I use in my brooders and I over by for what I'm going to use they never go bad I do a lot of rotations of chicks during the year you never have too many shavings on hand I especially want a lot on hand when they're getting big and I want to move them outside because you don't want that ammonia to build up you want to keep their brooding situation dry clean little manure as possible shovel out any wet cakes you know around the feeders or waters we move our feeders around in the brooder to more evenly spread the manure out instead of feeding in the same place and not doing anything day after day because they'll sit and eat and poop and sit and eat and poop and that will build up they'll breathe that in because they're sitting right on the shavings and that will give them lung diseases and weaken their immune system all in all not a very positive way for them to live so we're doing almost daily fresh shavings even if it's not a full Bale a sprinkling on top to keep things dry keep that manure pack down we also keep a wheelbarrow outside of the shed that will shovel out manure cakes into the wheelbarrow and then bring it out to the compost later on the real trick is keep them dry keep them clean and then as they're going out to field make the environment inside the brooder as much like outside as you could possibly get so that there's no shock no big shock to their system when they're moving from inside to outside there are different ways that I'm sure people brood everywhere I brewed with the lights right there I give them the hanging bucket with the nipples on it I also give them a bell water a variety of things so they're always getting feed they're always getting water they're always clean and dry and happy and healthy that little extra time and effort you spend in the brooder pays off in a lower mortality rate later on ask me how I know so that's it for this video that's when I bring my birds out to pasture my rule of thumb two weeks in the brooder six weeks in the field four Cornish cross two weeks two and a half weeks in the brooder and up to eight weeks in the field seven eight weeks in the field for the red Rangers because they're a little bit more slow growing but harder your bird so if you take away nothing else from this video the key to everything on farm is observation not running through your tasks you have a lot to do I'm always stressed out these days and there's a lot on my plate but taking some time to sit and watch your Birds watch what's going on observe really pays off because you'll notice oh they can't reach the feeder they can't reach the water or when they pick that water a lot of water falls out little things that you'll notice that you'll pick up on you'll adjust your system and you'll get more efficient and you'll have a lower mortality rate year to year the only reason I consider myself an expert which I don't really consider myself an expert but because I've killed more chickens than most other people and you if you're good you only make those mistakes once you will make those mistakes but you only make them once you learn from it you adjust your system and my year-to-year my mortality rate is getting lower which means my farm profits are going up that's it hope you enjoy your day I'm going to get back to work get these ones out on the pasture they're going out right now after I finish this video I'm really happy about that so until next time I'll see you out in the field you

Channel: John Suscovich

Views: 74,186

Rating: 4.9577165 out of 5

Keywords: Pasture (Geographical Feature Category), Chicken (Animal), pastured poultry, Poultry Farming (Industry), Poultry (Food), Agriculture (Industry)

Id: 3XwFrxQSBkc

Length: 5min 42sec (342 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2015